The Hooded Stranger
by 0hsnap10
Summary: A strange woman, about Anna's age, has appeared in Arendelle. No one knows anything about her, and she herself is does not seem to be providing answers, but her presence has attracted unwanted attention from an organization known to its employees simply as "The Company."
1. What Has Gone Before

**Hello! This story is a sequel to my previous story "A Queen's Nightmares." While it isn't necessary to read, (As I hope I have summarized it well in this chapter) I hope you would to show some support for me. (Also in case I _didn't_ summarize it well.) Nonetheless, here are my summaries of both "Frozen" and "A Queen's Nightmares" to help you get up to speed! Enjoy.**

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_**W****hat**** has gone before:**_

_FROZEN:_

Princess Anna of Arendelle and Princess Elsa of Arendelle were very close as children, but an accident involving Elsa's ice powers made the royal family lock themselves away and keep the princesses separate from each other until Elsa could master control.

In a few years the king and queen died, leaving Arendelle with no rulers. Elsa was still too young to ascend to the throne, but in three years she would be crowned queen.

When she was, she accidentally revealed her powers and froze the kingdom of Arendelle in the middle of summer.

Anna, Kristoff, and Sven along with help from a snowman Elsa made named Olaf, set out to retrieve her.

Along the way, Anna's heart became frozen by Elsa, and so they set out to unfreeze it.

They learned that only an act of true love could unfreeze it, so they decided to go to Hans, Anna's fiance.

Hans captured Elsa and brought her to a cell in Arendelle's castle.

When Anna returned to Hans, he betrayed her; locked her in a room; and set out to kill Elsa.

The both escaped, and before Hans could commit the murder, Anna stepped in the way. This satisfied the act of true love required to unfreeze her heart.

Elsa sent Hans back to the Southern Isles to receive punishment from his own family., and Anna began a relationship with Kristoff.

_A QUEEN'S NIGHTMARES:_

Very shortly after Elsa had sent Hans back home, she went to the ballroom. She had mastered control over her power through the love she held for her sister. She was unafraid of her powers for the first time in forever, and she wanted to see how far she could push her limits.

She began swirling snowflakes throughout the room. Faster and faster they flew. She was so caught up in the beauty of it, she lost her concentration and the snowflakes flew directly through her body. Directly through her heart. She wasn't harmed. Not physically. She didn't feel any pain. Being immune to ice, you wouldn't expect her to, but it affected her mind.

It caused dreadful nightmares, and it caused Elsa to create an evil consciousness calling herself Passtale to haunt her.

Eventually, Passtale gained more influence over the real world. To the point where it seemed that she had control, albeit weak and temporary, over actions that Elsa took while awake.

In one attempt at sleep, Elsa miraculously brought Anna into her nightmare, and Passtale attempted to kill her. Elsa sacrificed herself to save Anna, unfreezing her own heart and getting rid of Passtale.

_Elsewhere..._


	2. Elsewhere

**I decided to post this as a prologue chapter in this story as a reminder.**

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It was a dark night in a small town not too far from Arendelle.

Through this town walked a figure. The figure was wearing a plain dark cloak to hide their body and an equally plain and dark hood to hide their face. The person noticed a tavern not too far up the road and decided to ask there.

Walking in, the figure caught the attention of the barkeeper, as well as a few of the other folks in the tavern, but they were unimportant. The figure walked up to the bar and sat down at the counter.

"What can I get for you, stranger?" The man asked.

"Anything non-alcoholic." The figure responded in the toughest voice they could conjure up. The bartender couldn't believe it.

"If you don't drink, what are you doing here, sir?"

"Getting directions." The hooded being responded. At that moment, the door opened and a figure wearing a cloak and hood surprisingly similar to the person currently sitting in front of the bartender came through the door and began a slow walk towards the bar, the bartender, and the figure.

"Friend of yours?" The bartender asked.

"I've never seen that person before in my life." The first hooded figure answered.

"Alright, it was a fair question, now what was yours?" The man defended himself before remembering that this person before him wanted to know how to get somewhere.

"How far and in which direction is Arendelle?" The person asked.

The man responded with: "It's about a day's walk from here. Head toward the northwest."

"Thank you, now for that drink." It was at that moment that the other figure reached them. The person took a seat three stools down from the other.

"How about a hot cup of tea?" The bar man asked. When he got a nod from one hood, he turned to the other.

"And you, sir?"

"Your finest wine, please." The second person said. In a few minutes the barkeeper returned with a cup of tea as well as one of their oldest wine.

"Here you go are, my friend." The man said as he put the wine in front of the second stranger.

"And here _you_ are, sir." He continued as he put down the tea just before the first figure.

He watched in awe as the first faceless stranger of the evening simply took the mug and downed the tea. The very hot tea. The other hooded man seemed to be shocked as well. He, as inconspicuously as he could, downed his wine to try and keep up with the hood next to him, but he couldn't down it quite as fast and the figure had walked out by the time he was done. The remaining hood slammed the glass down onto the table, slapped the amount he owned on the counter as well, and began to walk out. Then he turned back to barkeep and asked.

"What did the other hooded one ask you?"

"I was asked for directions on how to get to Arendelle from here." the bar tender replied.

"Damn." He slammed his hands onto the counter. "When the trail came this close I was worried, but..."

The hooded man mumbled to himself. "I'd hunt them through hell. Some of them I have, but follow them to Arendelle?" The figure thought about returning home as a failure, but then there was that word there, "Failure." _'No. If I let this one be, I'll get kicked out and completely humiliated.' _If the figure wasn't wearing a hood, the barkeep would have seen a smile come to the person's face. _'Besides... it might be an entertaining little reunion.' _The figure started walking toward the door, but the man working the bar stopped him.

"Sir, what is your name?" He asked.

"You didn't ask for her name. Why do you need mine?" The figure responded as he left the tavern.


	3. Frozen Heart

A few days later near Arendelle.

Kristoff was walking across the ice with a saw in his hands. He didn't know what being "Royal Ice Master and Deliverer meant, but since he'd been given title, his business had skyrocketed. More people were buying his ice, people were buying more of his ice, and people were also paying more for his ice.

Kristoff broke through the ice with his saw and started to cut his way across the ice. Remembering when he was just a kid, like every time he went ice harvesting, he started to sing the song they sang.

"Born of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining."

"This icy force both foul and fair has a frozen heart worth mining."

Anna cut in.

"So cut through the heart, cold and clear."

"Strike for love and strike for fear."

Kristoff had almost forgotten that his girlfriend had decided to join him. She always liked coming if for no other reason than to watch him work. Kristoff didn't understand what was so interesting about a man and his reindeer harvesting ice, but he enjoyed the company, and this time she'd brought her sister and Olaf too... _'No pressure.'_

Anna continued.

"See the beauty sharp and sheer"

Kristoff joined Anna for the next part.

"Split the ice apart and break the frozen heart."

"Hyah!" Kristoff yelled on rhythm

"Ho!" Anna cut in.

"Watch your step." Olaf sounded concerned. As though he was actually providing a warning for the crew.

"Let it go!" Elsa could have laughed at the line she was singing in the song... it seemed somehow fitting... everyone knew why.

_'of course Anna taught them the song.'_ Kristoff thought to himself as they all repeated their lines.

"Beautiful!" Olaf cried before Kristoff could say it.

"Powerful!" He heard Elsa speak

"Dangerous!" Anna sniped the word from him, leaving Kristoff with just one word left. If Olaf took this one from him...

"Cold!" He let out along with a sigh.

"Ice as a magic can be controlled." Elsa warped the lyrics to be a bit more accurate to her situation and smiling while she did it.

Kristoff loved when Elsa smiled. Of course, he loved Anna's smile just as much, if not more, but Anna practically never stopped smiling, and the rarity of a smile on the face of the queen even since the great thaw. Of course, that was the only period in which he'd really known her. They were so beautiful. Both Elsa's mature elegance -for the most part- and Anna's fun-loving innocence -again, for the most part- were so beautiful to him, and watching his girlfriend and his best human friend get along so well... Granted, they were sisters, but the point still stood in Kristoff's opinion.

_'Especially since-' _Kristoff's train of thought had been broken by the fact that the Queen and Princess had continued without him, but rather than join in, he just watched and listened to their duet... _'They must have practiced.' _He thought.

"Stronger than one, stronger than 10, stronger than 100 men! Hyah!"

The rest of the song turned into a duet between sisters.

"Born of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining."

"This icy force both foul and fair has a frozen heart worth mining."

"So cut through the heart, cold and clear."

"Strike for love and strike for fear."

"There's beauty and there's danger here."

"Split the ice apart! beware the frozen heart."

The sisters, done with their little duet, smiled at each other. Then they noticed that Kristoff was staring right at them.

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**A quick Note: This story has been thought out ahead of time, and many chapters are already written! Any suggestions for the plot will likely be ignored since the story has already been planned out for the most part. Suggestions on my writing style would be appreciated as I used to make stories, but I never really got feedback on them, so I don't know if I suck or not.  
**


	4. A Bit of a Distraction

**Yes, I did just post 3 chapters. I didn't want to only give you a prologue I already had posted somewhere or a musical number consisting of virtually no story, so here's the first actual chapter.**

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"What are you looking at, Kristoff?" Elsa asked him.

He had been distracted by both her and Anna's beautiful, smiling faces. He knew he wouldn't get in trouble for admitting that, but Anna would probably tease him about getting soft. He couldn't have that. Luckily, Olaf gave him a way out, so he wouldn't have to go through that.

"Behind you." Kristoff pointed.

Elsa and Anna looked in the direction Kristoff had been pointing to see Olaf and Sven fighting over a carrot. By the fact that Olaf didn't have his nose, they guessed that it was the carrot they were fighting over.

Sven was slipping all over the ice while Olaf was trying to use his snowman body to his advantage. Olaf was doing all sorts of silly things to get to his nose first. He first tried to use contort his body to work similar to a train. After that failed, he catapulted his head, with one of his arms on it, over to the carrot.

After a minute of their feud, it appeared that Sven had come out victorious obtaining the carrot and sucking it into his mouth.

Olaf had a very sad look on his face. Looking down, He began to shed tears. Seconds afterword, Sven ran up, carrot still in his mouth, and put it back on Olaf's face where it was supposed to be. Kristoff marveled at how weird it was that his reindeer's best friend, outside of a gruff ice harvester for whom he often acted as a conscious, (which is odd enough as it is) was a living; breathing; and, potentially most jarring, talking snowman.

All of them, Elsa; Anna; Kristoff; Olaf; and Sven, began laughing. After the humor had subsided, Kristoff and Sven went back to work, Elsa and Anna went to the shore of the frozen lake, and Olaf tried to help Kristoff and and Sven but mostly got in the way.

"You've chosen quite a good guy, Anna." Elsa said to her.

"Better than my first." Anna tried to joke, but she sounded more bitter than playful... probably because she was.

Noticing the anger and regret in her voice but not really able to say it was groundless, Elsa began to craft for her sister a snowflake made with precise detail out of her perfect ice; Elsa ignored the pain she felt as she did so.

Elsa didn't know why, but ever since she crafted the ice palace, any time she tried to use her magically perfect ice it hurt although not as much as when she used her magic towards the fire. When she made her ice palace on top of the north mountain, she effortlessly and painlessly crafted flawless ice that would never melt unless she willed it to. When she tried these past few weeks, however, it took all her concentration to do so, and when she did, it hurt.

The amount it hurt depended upon how much ice she was using. The ice she was using to make a palm-sized snowflake felt like a fairly sharp pain all over her body; making something the size of a small room might knock her unconscious; but making another ice castle would definitely kill her if she somehow managed it.

The bright side was that once the ice was crafted, it would stick around indefinitely. She had thrown a few pieces of the ice into the fire in her room. A few days later, she went to make another fire and found that her ice was still fully intact in the fireplace. The only exception to the rule she could remember was when Hans shot the chandelier, but she assumed that it was because it was an extremely thin bit of ice.

Elsa finished the snowflake and handed it to Anna. She smiled, thanked her sister, and put the snowflake in her backpack.

Anna turned away from Elsa. When she turned back, Elsa saw a snowball in her hands. Anna stood up and threw the snowball at Kristoff. It hit him square in the face. Kristoff looked up from from his work in time to see a giggling Anna and Elsa. He and Olaf locked eyes.

Elsa and Anna were too busy laughing to notice what was happening. Before too long, though they became all too aware. At first, all either of them could see was darkness, but soon they heard a voice.

"Kristoff, this feels really weird." It sounded like Olaf.

Elsa and Anna could hear Kristoff laughing. The pulled Olaf's body parts off of themselves.

"You did _not _just pick a fight with the snow queen." Elsa said as she formed a gigantic snowball above Kristoff.


	5. A Snowball Fight

The rest of the day was spent having a snowball fight. Well... fight... Elsa was using her ice powers to try and hit Kristoff; Kristoff was running around like a madman dodging Elsa's firepower, well icepower; and Anna, Olaf, and Sven were all on the sidelines laughing.

Kristoff rolled out of the way as a massive snowball came down on him. He started running towards Elsa, but she sent a blizzard concentrated on the mountain man. He continued running. Just in time, he noticed that Elsa had melted some of the ice in front of him and leaped over the icy water.

Kristoff continued running in Elsa's direction. He didn't know what he would do once he actually got to her. He'd probably throw a snowball at her, or something. Not that it would do much against the Snow Queen. That was the point, really.

Elsa stopped the blizzard and put on her face a very wicked grin. Kristoff was confused, but kept advancing on the Queen. When Kristoff got within ten feet, however, Elsa slid under the ice, passing right through it. Kristoff stopped in his tracks. Looking back at Anna, Olaf, and Sven, all but Olaf shared in Kristoff's shock. Olaf probably just didn't have any clue as to what was going on.

Looking back at Anna, he notice that she was pointing behind him. He spun and once again met Elsa's grin. That was when he noticed that he was under a large shadow. He looked up and noticed that unlike the other times it was too late to dodge out from under it. The massive snowball was lowered, quite quickly, onto his head... he didn't see anything after that.

Until he saw _her_.

Anna, that is. He opened his eyes to see the prettiest lady he'd ever seen. She had a very worried look on her face, but gave a fairly weak smile when she saw his eyes open up.

"Elsa, Come here. He's fine." Anna said.

Kristoff looked in the direction Anna was looking; he saw the Queen of Arendelle hunched over in a way that a queen never should. Publicly, at least.

She slowly looked toward Kristoff, and he noticed the streams of wetness on her face and the redness in her face. _'She's been crying.' _Kristoff realized.

He got up, gave Anna a hug and a kiss, and then made his way over to Elsa. He put his arms around her trying to comfort her.

"I'm fine, Elsa. You don't need to worry about me." Kristoff assured her.

"I could have killed you. I got carried away. I shouldn't have let that happen." Elsa replied in self-loathing.

"It was fun until you started crying about it." Kristoff tried to let her know it was this part that was causing him the most pain... but, you know, not in those exact words. _'I am so awful at feelings.'_

Elsa gave him a "did you really just say that?" look. Turning to Anna, he received the same face from her. He shrugged.

"I was having a blast. How did you just pass through the ice?" Kristoff asked amazed.

"Practice, I guess. I can't really explain it. it's like the ice gives way in the perfect shape of my body and allows me to pass through just to reform as soon as I'm through. Pretty cool, huh?" Elsa said. There was more than just a hint of pride in her voice, and she was back to smiling.

"Kristoff, your hair!" Elsa chuckled at the ice crystals scattered throughout his blonde mop.

"Don't worry about my hair, worry about my ice business. we spent all day goofing off and I have nothing to bring back to Arendelle!" Kristoff lamented.

Anna started laughing and Sven gave Kristoff a look of disbelief. Even Olaf laughed, but Kristoff's suspicions were confirmed when Olaf asked:

"What are we laughing at?"

Answering Olaf's question, but talking to Kristoff, Elsa said:

"You do realize you just said that to someone who can create ice at will, right?"

Kristoff felt stupid. He wasn't particularly intelligent, but he had never been someone to miss the obvious like that.

"So then what was the point of me working?" Kristoff asked.

"You worked?" Anna answered a question with a question. A _sarcastic_ question.

"I just remember singing and a... _whatever_ that was." Anna said.

Elsa waved her hand toward the sled and filled it to the point of overflowing with perfectly carved bricks of ice.

"Can you do that every day?" Kristoff asked.

"No!" came a harsh response from the Queen. "If I do that, you're making money for doing nothing. That is cheating."

"Then why did you do it now?"

"Because" It was Anna's turn to answer again. "We sabotaged your work today."

"Alright, well we'd better start heading back." Kristoff told them.

"I don't think so, Kristoff." Anna started

"What? Why not?" He asked.

"Because I think it's been a while since we've visited the ice palace."

Kristoff hand instinctively went into his pocket and began feeling the small, gold, and circular object housed within it.

"Yep. We're all going!" Elsa ruined for Kristoff.

_'Oh.'_ he thought as he took his hand out of his pocket. Once he got over the disappointment, Kristoff asked why. Elsa replied that it had to do with the fact that they, especially Kristoff, had not seen it all in it's true beauty... or something like that. Kristoff was still a bit distracted by his shattered hopes. _'You never know... perhaps even with Elsa and Olaf there I'll get to-' _ Kristoff stopped that train of thought when he realized what could very well be waiting up there for them.


	6. The Ice Palace

After a few hours, Elsa; Anna; Olaf; Sven; and Kristoff all made it up to the peak of the North Mountain. At the top, sat the Ice Palace. The magnificent, gorgeous, _perfect_ castle crated by Queen Elsa in seconds. Kristoff would be lying if he said he'd never thought about coming back here. Noticing the lack of a snow pile off to the side of the staircase, he allowed his heart to slow down in it's pace.

_'So far so good.' _Kristoff thought to himself.

"What happened?" Elsa saw the broken staircase.

"My guess would be that something happened when Hans came to get you." Anna guessed correctly.

"Hans." Elsa hissed. "That man is the root of all my problems."

"You're exaggerating." Anna replied. "What about the evil, murderous nightmares?"

"The what?!" Kristoff asked, alarmed.

Elsa shot both of them her most intimidating "stop talking" face. Surprisingly, Anna got the message whereas Kristoff just thought she didn't want to about the dreams that, apparently, wanted to kill her.

"Also, I don' t think Hans had you shut Anna out of your life." Kristoff understood Elsa's expression when he felt that his girlfriend's elbow had been thrust firmly into his kidney.

Elsa walked gracefully towards the partially shattered staircase. slowly, she rested a hand on the railing. Kristoff watched in awe as ice slowly began to fill the gap in the staircase. It looked as beautiful as ever.

"Are you ready?" Elsa asked her audience. The group reformed at the base of the stairs.

"Sorry, Sven..." Kristoff started. "You can't make it up the stairs. Just stay here. I'll come out to visit as often as I can."

Sven head went down.

"No you won't." Kristoff used his Sven voice. "You're going to be with Anna the whole time."

"That's true," Kristof was himself again. "But I could always bring Anna out here."

At that, Sven perked up.

"Elsa, would you be able to make a stable for Sven?"

Elsa obliged. She waved her hands and snowflakes swirled around just to the right of the staircase. Slowly but surely, the shape of an inclosed stable could be made out. Although beautiful, it was made out of normal ice. It was flawless, but it was unimpressive compared to Elsa's... _perfect_ ice. Kristoff understood that "Flawless" and "Perfect" were synonyms, but there was simply no better description. Elsa regular ice was beautiful, lacking cracks or air bubbles, but her perfect ice practically glowed.

"Looks a bit shabby compared to the castle." Kristoff mumbled out loud, not realizing that if Elsa had made the stable out of her perfect ice, she likely would have been as unconscious as Kristoff was earlier.

"It's a _stable._" Elsa defended.

Kristoff shrugged; he then headed over to the stables with Sven. Looking around, Kristoff noticed that Elsa had put so much detail into the interior. _'"It's a stable" huh?' _He thought. It was just like the stables back at the castle; except it was monochrome, being the color of ice. There were multiple stalls even though the only resident would likely be Sven. the walls were mostly plain, save for a stripe of patterns about waist height. A closer look showed Kristoff that the patterns were actually excruciatingly detailed statuettes of each of them: Olaf, Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, and Sven. _'she did all this without even seeing it?!' _Kristoff exclaimed to himself. Even though there were only five different characters along the wall, each and every one was in a completely different pose as to make each of them very unique.

Kristoff walked out looking dumbfounded. He had left Sven in the Stables.

"You okay there?" Anna asked Kristoff.

"A-... absolutely..." Kristoff began struck nearly speechless. "Such detail..." Kristoff said to Elsa. "And you couldn't even see what you were doing."

Elsa chuckled. "I saw it in my head."

They all lined up at the base of the ice staircase. Olaf, on the far left, was holding Elsa's hand; Elsa was holding Anna's hand; and Anna was holding Kristoffs hand. The all began taking steps up the staircase, but Elsa stopped them.

"Is this the first time you've been here since..." Elsa didn't have the emotional control to get out the rest of that sentence, but no one asked her to.

"Yeah." Anna kind of interrupted. "First time since Hans-?"

"Yes." Elsa truly interrupted.

They began to ascend the staircase once again. They got to the top of the stairs. An awkward moment came when Anna began to knock on the door.

Elsa cleared her throat.

Anna looked over at her sister. "Oh! Right, sorry."

Elsa placed her hands on the door. She waited for a few seconds before gently pushing the door wide open. They walked a few steps into the castle, and Elsa used her control over the ice to close the doors behind them. Anna and Kristoff looked in awe at the interior of the castle. They had only visited the ice palace one time, and that purpose not really to take in the sight, so they took full advantage of the opportunity. Olaf simply walked into the castle without a care in the world. Elsa simply started staring at the top of the staircase in the center of the back of the room.

Anna and Kristoff's eyes darted across the room. They momentarily took in the perfectly smooth and crystal-looking walls. Then their vision jumped to the giant snowflake frozen in the floor right in the center of the room. They looked at the small fountain placed right in between the two staircases. Then, their gaze went to the staircases that led to the upper level. They admired the perfect stairs... until, of course, they finally noticed the white blob that towered over them standing at the top of the stairs.

The giant before them was made of snow and ice. Snowy feet had ice claws at the end of them; snowy legs had ice spikes coming out of her legs; snowy hands had ice claws as fingers; snowy arms had ice spikes coming out of them; and a snowy head had icy spikes as teeth. There was a light blue glow coming out of the creatures eye sockets. His face was contorted to a very grumpy expression. And on top of the giant's head shimmered Elsa's tiara. Elsa and Anna stole a glance at each other and tried not to laugh. Of course, then they realized the potential danger and turned their attention back to the snowbeast

The creature jumped over the railing, landing in front of the invaders to his home... he released a loud, deep, and monstrous growl.

_'We're in trouble.' _Kristoff thought.


	7. Marshmallow

**In honor of the release of "Frozen" I give you every chapter I have completed up to this point! (6-9) (Not that anyone even reads this...)  
**

Marshmallow charged at them.

_'Why aren't we running?' _Kristoff thought to himself. Elsa took two steps toward the beast. She raised her hand as if to strike the snow-colossus down, but his expression softened. Before any of them could react, Elsa was swept off of her feet by the large creature.

"MAMA!" Marshmallow cried out in his deep thundering voice as he lifted Elsa off the ground in a strong, if not painful for Elsa, hug.

"Hi... *cough* Hi, Marshmallow." Elsa said through her bones being crushed.

"MAMA! MAMA! MAMA! MAMA! MAMA!" The beast repeated.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Kristoff said to nobody in particular before he addressed Marshmallow.

"Marshmallow, buddy, you're crushing her. You want your mama to be perfectly healthy, don't you?"

Marshmallow dropped Elsa to the floor... about 5 feet. Elsa let out a pained grunt as she hit the floor. Marshmallow realized what he had done.

"MAMA! I'M SORRY!" He plucked her off the ground and put her on her feet.

Then, he slowly reached up to his head; carefully took the beautiful crown off of his head, and gently placed it on the queen.

Elsa and Anna let loose their laughs now.

"What's so funny?" Kristoff asked the sisters while Olaf went to play with his big, little brother.

"Back when Elsa was having the-" Anna's expression became stoic. She didn't continue for a few seconds, but when she finally did, she completely skipped that part.

"I had mentioned something about a dream I'd had where Marshmallow had been wearing Elsa's crown."

Elsa had a confused expression on her face. She waited patiently for Anna to notice, but for some reason, it wasn't very hard to figure out why but, Anna's eyes never left Kristoff's. Elsa finally said what was on her mind _without_ Anna noticing her face's expression.

"Anna, it's not a secret. You can tell him." Elsa said breaking Kristoff's trance on her as well as her trance on Kristoff.

"Oh!" said Anna gaining her sunshine personality again. "Well, it's not _that_ interesting. Elsa was training with her magic and accidentally froze her own heart, but because 'the cold never bothered her, anyway'" Elsa shook her head. Did Anna really just say that? "her frozen heart wasn't able to turn her into an ice statue so it gave her nightmares and made her completely crazy. BUT!" Anna took a breath there. "One of the dreams I went into somehow and this evil dream version of Elsa -What? Passtale?- tried to kill me, but Elsa sacrificed herself for me just like I had done for her, and by doing that she unfroze her heart and defeated whatever-her-name-was." Anna took another breath.

Kristoff was impressed. Not so much about the story as much as the fact the she took three breaths in telling it: One before she'd started, once somewhere in the middle, and one once she had finished.

"So, a frozen heart for Anna or I means we freeze to death, but a frozen heart for you means an evil dream tries to kill everyone? That seems fair, I die either way!" Kristoff said sarcastically.

"But you didn't!" Anna started. "Because Elsa saved me... herself... and indirectly all of us."

They heard Olaf's giggling coming from somewhere inside the ice castle.

"MAMA!" They heard marshmallow cry out for Elsa. "AND FRIENDS!" he added.

Elsa, followed by Kristoff, followed by Anna ran into the room the giggles were coming from. They started giggling, themselves.

There marshmallow stood... juggling Olaf!

"Hey, Anna! Check me out!" Olaf's head said as it flew through the air.

Olaf's carrot nose was the first to fly out from his body. Then came the arms; then the feet. Finally, every few seconds, one of his buttons would fly off until Marshmallow was juggling three disproportionate balls of snow... one of them had a face.

"Marshmallow, can you put Olaf down please?" Elsa asked endearingly.

Marshmallow obliged and caught all of Olaf's snowballs in his right hand before gently letting them roll out of his hand and onto the floor. Anna ran up and put the pieces together in the right order. Kristoff and Elsa gathered the feet, arms, buttons, and nose. In a few minutes they had put Olaf back together perfectly.

Soon, they were off, and Elsa was giving them a tour of all the empty rooms in the palace.

"Elsa, why are all of these rooms empty?" Kristoff asked the Snow Queen.

"I was only here for a few days." Came the response. "The first couple I was too distracted by the freedom I felt to furnish everything. I made ice statues, but I guess when I unfroze Arendelle, they melted." She explained.

"The last day, though, I was trying to get myself together to melt everything."

"So you didn't eat, or sleep, or... anything?!" Anna asked incredulously.

Elsa shrugged her shoulders.

"On the bright side," Kristoff began. "We can help you finish furnishing the place!"

Elsa chuckled. "Hm... tempting, but I'm pretty sure I would be doing all the work." Elsa waved her hand around and summoned ice crystals to follow it as she said that.

"But, you can choose your own rooms. Unless, of course, Kristoff would prefer the stable outside." Elsa teased.

Anna ran into the nearest room.

"Oh, Kristoff we could share this one!" Anna yelled out. She stressed the word "Share."

Elsa picked up on it.

"Anna..." Elsa blushed at what she was about to say. "You two haven't...?" She _REALLY_ didn't want to have to finish that.

Kristoff blushed redder than Anna's hair.

Anna didn't seem to care. "Of course not, Elsa!" She laughed. "I was just messing with you."

But then Anna got almost frighteningly serious. "That's what you get for teasing my boyfriend... that's _my _job."

Anna started laughing again. Elsa and Kristoff joined her nervously.

"In all seriousness, though. I would like this room. Elsa followed Anna into one of the only rooms she hadn't shown them yet. Unlike all the other rooms they had entered, this one _was _furnished; this one was modeled after the one Elsa and Anna had shared as kids.

"Oh." Elsa sighed. "This one was the one I was thinking I would have..."

"Exactly!" Anna sounded so proud of herself. "We'll share it, just like we used to!"

So Anna _did_ remember the significance of this design.

Elsa allowed herself to smile and take Anna up on the offer.

"So!" Elsa started more excited than she'd sounded in a long time. "We have Sven, Anna, and I all taken care of, and Olaf and Marshmallow don't need anything special, so that just leaves you, Kristoff. Where do want to sleep?"

Kristoff sighed. "I'll sleep in the stables."

Anna snickered.

"You don't have to do that, Kristoff!" Elsa told him.

"No, it's fine." Kristoff began. "I always sleep with Sven."

Elsa blinked.

"Explains the smell, but _always?"_ She asked.

"Why do you think we haven't-"

"**I ****refuse to even _think_ about** **that.**" Elsa said _very_ sternly.

"What happens when you two get married?" Elsa asked.

Kristoff stiffened and brought his hand to his pocket.

Anna was curious as to why he had been doing that recently, but Elsa knew right away.

She blinked again.

Changing the subject before Anna could catch on, Elsa said:

"Alright so all the sleeping arrangements are sorted out. Shall we just have fun for the rest of the day?"

Anna liked that plan.


	8. Another Snowball Fight

Elsa suggested a snowball fight.

Olaf, Marshmallow, and Anna agreed immediately, but Kristoff saw a couple of flaws in the plan; the biggest one being the fact that Elsa had, just a few hours ago, been feeling so guilty for knocking Kristoff out. What if something like that happened again?

The other flaw was obvious.

In a few minutes, Kristoff had divided them into three teams:

Team "Weirdness" consisted of Olaf, Marshmallow, and Sven,

team "Normal" consisted of Anna and himself, and

team "Ridiculously Freaking O.P. Like None Other" had Elsa.

"Are fopple no." Olaf giggled as he pronounced the acronym of Elsa's team name. Kristoff asked Elsa if they should get time to build forts before the war started. . . . she said no.

"Five!" Elsa began the countdown

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"**_GO__!_**" Everyone cried in unison. In that second, Elsa raised her arms and a large pile of snow formed right in front of her; it was about as tall as she was. Marshmallow sat down on the ground becoming a snow fort for Olaf and Sven in that quick motion.

Kristoff and Anna both looked at each other and blinked. pulling themselves together from their shock, they began piling up snow in front of them in a desperate attempt to get at least a small fort built up before they were pelted with snowballs. To their shock they never got hit with a single one.

Once they were finished the snowballs came flying toward them in a single wave. Elsa had stopped them in mid-air to deal a much more devastating blow once the fort was finished. How nice...

Olaf was riding Sven, throwing snowballs in the queens direction while Marshmallow formed snow boulders to throw at the queen. . . . Or Kristoff!

He missed, though. It landed on top of their fort, only making it stronger. Anna and Kristoff were both forming snowballs as fast as they could. Once they felt they had enough snowballs, they released them on Elsa.

None of them reached their target.

The queen used her ice magic to force the snowballs to melt and, eventually, evaporate.

"That is _not_ fair!" Anna cried.

"It's in the name, isn't it?" Elsa returned, referring to the name Kristoff had given her team.

More snow-boulders rained down on Elsa, too big to melt but still not really doing any damage. As Marshmallow threw the boulders he'd made Kristoff noticed too late a disaster about to happen.

"**SVEN!**" Kristoff screamed as Marshmallow picked up his reindeer absentmindedly and sent him towards Elsa.

Luckily, Elsa noticed the blunder on the part of her snow-hulk. She used her magic to form a slide. Forming first at the ground, it made it's way around Elsa's fort and angled itself such that the reindeer would fall on it as harmlessly as possible.

Sure enough, Sven's trajectory had him landing painlessly at the top, and the curvature and slope of the slide sent him slipping swiftly back into the snow resting of the North Mountain.

Kristoff ran towards his reindeer and brought him into an embrace.

"Sven, are you okay buddy?" Kristoff asked his reindeer.

"Hey, I'm fine! Don't worry so much about me." Kristoff responded as his deer... his _rein_deer.

"You could have died! Be more careful, okay?" Kristoff pleaded to Sven.

"What? Like you?" Kristoff, as Sven, teased himself.

"No, you're right. I'm not the best example, but-" Kristoff interrupted himself.

"Hey, buddy. They're staring. I think we're making them uncomfortable." Sven(Kristoff) said as he(again, Kristoff) looked around the field of battle.

"No! No! Continue, we were just... waiting for you... two? Yeah, I guess. We were just waiting for you two to be done." Anna told the reindeer/Kristoff.

She whispered to Elsa, who had just walked up next to her:

"I'm dating a reindeer just as much as I'm dating a man."

Elsa chuckled.

"That's messed up, Anna."

"Hey! I thought you 'refuse to even think about it,' Elsa." Anna retorted.

"I do." Elsa said flatly.

When Elsa saw the sun beginning to set, she turned to address everyone present.

"Well, shall we retire for the night?"

"No, please! I wanna stay with you guys a little longer! I love you guys." Kristof said for Sven. Sven gave him a look as though he'd thought or said nothing of the sort.

"Oh, alright." Kristoff said solemnly for Sven despite the fact that Sven was walking quite happily into the stables by himself.

"Not the best translator, are you?" Anna joked.

Kristoff shrugged his shoulders.

"18 years. People- or reindeer, in this case, can still surprise you even after 18 years."

* * *

At the bottom of the mountain.

The hooded figure- Or rather the hooded _girl, _as that hooded _man_ had revealed, walked aimlessly through the woods. She had been doing so for days. She never stopped, or ate, or rested. She just _walked_. It shouldn't come to anyone's surprise, then, that she was more than slightly out it. She didn't even notice the stone walls towering above her. She didn't notice them, of course, until she ran straight into them.

"Ow." She said to herself.

She was still much too tired to even fully realize what happened. She just that whatever it was... it _hurt_. She looked up and saw the stone.

"Did I make it." She sounded drunk.

She stumbled into the streets, looking for anything that would name the place she was currently stumbling through. She made it to a bar. _'great.' _She thought, rather than spoke.

She walked toward the door and slammed it open. Everyone in the bar gasped. A few of them screamed.

"Were am I?" She asked anyone willing to answer.

"You're at the local tavern, ma'am." The barkeep informed her.

"Yep!" She started. "Local to where?"

"A- Arendelle..." The man could hardly believe this lady had no idea where she was.

"Great!" She said.

"Awesome!" She also said.

"Thanks." Another word came out of her mouth.

"'Kay, bye!" She yelled as she went back through the door she came in from.

It took seconds for everyone inside to forget the encounter had even happened.

Well, a couple of people remembered.


	9. What Have I Got In My Pocket?

Nothing particularly interesting happened at the ice palace after their snowball fight. The gave advice to Elsa about how to furnish the castle, but besides that they didn't do much until the night they left.

Kristoff was up on the balcony that overlooked the mountains. He very much liked the mountains. They were his home. Even before he'd been adopted by the trolls he was accustomed to life on the mountain. Sure he'd go to Arendelle to sell his - often tiny and singular piece of - ice, but beyond that he'd just stay up in the mountains. Wolves were always a bit of a problem, but he generally slept in trees, up high enough where they couldn't get to him- Or if they could it was far to much effort to take for a guy half their size.

Anna walked up to join Kristoff in looking over the mountains.

"It's so beautiful." Anna said.

"I know..." Kristoff agreed although his eyes were on the princess. He shook himself out of his trance.

"I meant to ask..." Anna began. "Why did you come into the palace after me the first time we were here?"

"Oh. um... Believe it or not- Sven great company- Don't tell him I said otherwise, but he kind of got his tongue stuck against the stairwell, so he wasn't much for words. Plus, I really wanted to see the interior of the ice palace, and when I heard singing I just assumed everything was okay."

"Oh." Came Anna's flat response.

"What, were you looking for something in particular?" Kristoff asked.

"No." Anna answered sweetly.

Kristoff's hand reached into his pocket and grabbed hold of the ring contained within. _'Now's as good a time as any...' _he thought to himself.

Kristoff mustered up all of his courage.

. . .

Only to have it shatter as Anna brought her eyes to his.

"We should probably head to the sled." Kristoff said mentally kicking himself.

"True!" Anna said. She gave a quick hug and kiss to Kristoff as she ran down the stairs with her usual energy.

As Anna left, Kristoff relaxed. Only to nearly scream as he heard Elsa's voice from behind him.

"You kno-"

"Oh my goodness, how long were you there?!" Kristoff said very surprised by Elsa's sudden presence.

"The whole time." Elsa shrugged her shoulders.

"Gosh! . . . You're like Batman." Kristoff announced.

"Who?" Elsa questioned.

"I. Have. No. Idea." He revealed.

Changing the subject, Elsa informed Kristoff that:

"I approve, by the the way."

"Huh?" Kristoff was a bit confused, not as to what she meant but how she knew.

"I approve of you and Anna." She answered.

"I figured if you didn't approve of us dating, you'd talk to her, or me, or have me thrown out of the kingdom or something" Kristoff tried to bury what she was actually talking about.

"That's not what I'm referring to, Kristoff." Elsa read through his ploy. Although, really, that only would have worked if she had no idea what was going on which she clearly did.

"How did you know?" He questioned.

"The only reason Anna doesn't know is because she thinks it's too good to be true!" Elsa informed him. "For the last week, every time anyone mentions marriage; or love; or... _anything that reminds you of her,_ you stand up straight and put your hand in you pocket. I would bet all of the money in Arendelle's treasury that you've got a ring in there."

"I wish I didn't." Kristoff said.

Elsa raised an eyebrow questioning the mountain man's words.

"Then I'd be able to get her a better one." He joked.

They both let laughs out, but then Elsa got serious.

"Kristoff," She began. "Is it a ring?"

"Well of course it's a ring, what else wou-"

"Is it from you?" Elsa interrupted.

"Yes..." Kristoff was wondering where all these questions with obvious answers were coming from. His answer came with Elsa's response.

"Then she'll love it more than anything else in the world." Elsa said factually; Then she added: "Apart from you."

"What about you?" Kristoff asked. "You've done more for her than I have."

"I've done even more against her." She replied as a matter of fact.

"Come on, Elsa. Give yourself a little more credit."

"I'm having a pity-party, Kristoff. That's reality. I shut her out for 13 years. _fact._"

"Your parents did that." Kristoff defended.

"I almost killed her three times. _fact._"

"Those were- three?" _'Oh right, The dreams.' _"Those were all accidents!" Kristoff declared. "Your sister loves you so much. If it came down to me or you, she would choose you."

Elsa smiled at Kristoff's kind words.

"While that may be true, Romantic love is completely different from the love sisters share. It's similar enough to thaw frozen hearts, but it should be in it's own category."

"Then don't put them in the same category! You started it with saying she'd love the ring more than you." Kristoff let that linger there for a second before he found the rest of his words.

"Let's agree to put all forms of love in completely separate categories with No comparisons between them: Family, friends, and romance. Each completely unique and equally magical.

The were silent for a few seconds before Anna's voice reminded them that they were supposed to be leaving.

"Elsa! Are you done talking to my boyfriend?! The sled's all packed up!"

"She noticed you there and I didn't?" Kristoff almost couldn't believe it.

"Hey, you had a lot on your mind." Elsa said smiling.

In minutes they were on the sled and riding out into the darkness.

"Where's Olaf and Marshmallow?" Anna asked noticing it was just the three of them.

"Marshmallow didn't really want to come. Plus, he couldn't fit in the sleigh." Answered Elsa.

"And Olaf?"

"He opted to stay with his 'brother.'" Elsa stated.

"Oh... one last question." Anna began. "Why did we leave at night? There are wolves." She finished, remembering that time they came up during the frozen summer.

"I wanted to be up at the palace for as long as possible, but I need to be back in the morning for... queenly stuff."

Anna never heard a word from Elsa as to exactly what 'queenly stuff' entailed. She was almost convinced that there wasn't actually any 'queenly stuff,' and that Elsa simply went into an empty room for a couple of hours.

"Besides, there won't be any wolves we have to deal with." Kristoff referred to Anna's last comment.

"Don't be optimistic, Kristoff. It doesn't suit you." Anna and the others fell into silence with that last line she'd said.

* * *

The hooded man sat 30 yards from the campsite that belonged to our hooded woman.

"Oh, girl... if only there was someone out there to hear you scream." He said to himself.

But there was someone to hear her scream, and that person was right behind the hooded man.

He made the near fatal mistake of stepping on a twig in the darkness.

Suddenly, the hooded man sprung up on his feet; whirled around to face the newcomer; pulled a knife from his belt; and put the blade against the other man's throat.

The hooded man looked intently at the oddly-calm man in front of him. He was slightly shorter than the hooded man. He had dark blue hair with a black streak run through many of the strands; light skin; and eyes black as night. Some people are crazy enough that you can see it in their eyes; this man was past that; you could _taste_ the crazy radiating from this man.

"Philip." The hooded man said flatly.

"Hello, my oh so stabby friend." Philip replied.

"What are you doing here? I'm about to finish the job!" The hooded man held back his anger such that it just came out as a whisper.

"You're being summoned by The King." Philip answered.

"Let me finish this and then I'll be off." The man demanded.

"I've already taken care of that. There are about 50 wolves coming to eliminate the girl. And The King refuses to wait." Philip flashed the man in front of him a toothy grin, ignoring the sharp blade still against his throat.

Reluctantly, the man finally let Philip go. "Fine, then. Not even _she_ could survive that many wolves."

The two walked off. A faint howling could be heard in the distance.


	10. Wolves

_A faint howling could be heard in the distance._

Anna glared at Kristoff. He tried to ignore the girl's stare. Finally, it became too much for him.

"What?! They're miles off. We wont have to deal with them."

Her glare didn't let up; in fact, it may have gotten more intense.

Kristoff closed his eyes.

"Oh... I jinxed it, didn't I?"

"I think you did, Kristoff." Elsa said pointing. "That's where the wolf howls are coming from, correct?"

"Sounds like it." Kristoff shrugged.

"Well it looks like there may be a camp set up over there." Elsa announced.

Anna rolled her eyes.

"See, Kristoff? Optimism only works out when it's mine." Anna told him.

"I'm sure they're fine, whoever they are." Kristoff assured.

"No." Anna said. "You have jinxed too many things tonight with your optimism, Kristoff. We're not leaving this to you."

"But if we don't help, then I wont have jinxed _anything_." He told them

"And if whoever is over there dies? You'll have jinxed that." Elsa said.

"And your initial jinxes only put _us_ in _danger_. This one might _kill_ _someone_." Anna continued for Elsa.

"Since when do we believe in jinxes, or luck, or anything supernatural besides ice magic?"

Kristoff knew he had them beat.

Or at least he thought he did.

"Kristoff... just go check it out."

* * *

The hooded woman heard howling from maybe a hundred yards behind her.

The woman lowered her hood to be able to see and hear more of her surroundings. With her hood down, any observer could see how young she was, 20 at the oldest; her auburn hair with a black streak down the side of her face, or her dark brown eyes, or how truly beautiful she was.

She could hear faint growling from all sides.

_'not good... not good at all.'_ she thought to herself.

After what seemed like forever, some of the wolves revealed themselves into the light of the fire. She readied herself for an attack, fully prepared to defend herself from the wolves. Suddenly, the wolves in front of her pounced like cats. She was ready to defend, but no attack came.

A wall of ice came out of nowhere to block the wolves mid-leap. Three people emerged from the woods and surrounded the young lady.

Each of them had their own strategy. The taller lady, platinum blonde hair tied into a single braid with a crown on the top of it, summoned boxes of ice to trap the wolves; the tall, blonde man was waving fire at the wolves to drive them back, and occasionally, he picked them up and threw them at the nearest tree; the shorter one, about her height and age with strawberry red hair tied in a single braid running down each side of her face, was wielding a lute, bashing all the wolves that dared to come near her.

After the wolves had had enough of the slaughter, none of them actually died, but none of them laid a paw or tooth on any of her helpers, they retreated.

The redhead played a victory tune on her lute. The man took it from her hands, causing it to let out a foul note.

"I never should have taught you how to play." He said teasingly.

The redhead stuck her tongue out at the man before turning her attention to the blonde woman.

"Elsa, you could have been a lot more helpful back there. I mean, it was a massacre, they didn't even lay a finger on us- well they don't have fingers, claws, I guess- but you could have done so much more."

If the woman had any doubt that Queen Elsa of Arendelle was among her rescuers, it was shattered by the redhead using her name.

_'That makes the redhead Anna.'_ She supposed.

She fell down on one knee to pay her respect to the queen.

Anna misread this as the woman falling down.

"Hey, hey, hey, you're alright. The wolves are all gone! . . . and none of them even touched you- why-?" Anna's eyes shot to Elsa as she understood exactly what was going on. "Oh, right! May I introduce..." She paused for dramatic effect before gesturing to Elsa. "Queen Elsa of Arendelle, my sister." She gave a little bow toward the queen.

"Alright, so that is her highness, I am informed enough to know that the sister of the queen is Anna, but I do not know who that is." The woman said pointing toward the blonde man.

"I told you that no one knew who I was!" The man called back.

"Oh, come on... that's my boyfriend! I'm sure people talk about my boyfriend..." When the girl gave Anna a confused look, she mouthed "Kristoff."

"OH! Right, Christopher!" She said.

The man stood up to shake the girl's hand.

"It's Kristoff, but close enough."

"Alright, so you know who your protectors are. Who are you?" Anna asked.

"Oh, right. My name is Isabella, but you can call me any shorting of that name."

"So, Isabella, Isa, Bella, Ella, Isabel, Bel, El... I can't think of any more..."

"Yes, any of those would be fine." Isabella told her.

They all turned at the noise of wolves close by... the slightly muffled noise of wolves close by. Elsa remembered that she'd trapped many of the attacking wolves in ice prisons. They might be running out of air at this point, and Elsa didn't want to kill them. That's why she only trapped them in the first place. With a wave of her hand, she willed the ice prisons to melt away and hoped the wolves would run. They did, but in the direction of Isabel. Anna stepped in the way, and before he could protest Anna's heroic sacrifice, she pulled the lute out from behind her back.

Kristoff saw fear in the eyes of the oncoming wolves. They were afraid? Of Anna?! Some of the braver wolves leaped at Anna, just to be swatted effortlessly away. the rest in her direction ran.

Then, he heard a faint growl from his left. Turning towards the forest he locked eyes with the wolves. They seemed indifferent to his presence and turned their attention to the redhead they were after. Kristoff was shocked that this pack of wolves were afraid of Anna, but they didn't care about him. _'They must not have seen me.' _ He thought.

They jumped at Isabella.

He intercepted their efforts, knocking his shoulder into them, sending them flying off course and into the snow.

They turned their attention to him. Now Kristoff could see anger. Not what he was going for, but closer. They jumped at him now. He kicked; punched; and picked them up and threw them away like an expert, but they kept coming. One managed to get its jaws around Kristoff's arm. As he yelled out in pain, Anna had had enough. Lute in hand, she charged at the wolves. They ran, leaving Anna proud and Kristoff confused; disappointed; and slightly jealous. Good thing Anna had no idea why he'd been disappointed because she would never let him live it down that wolves were scared of her but didn't even care about him.

"Guys?" They heard Elsa call from behind them.

They turned to see a couple more wolves staring at Elsa. If Kristoff didn't know better, he'd have said the wolves were _laughing_ at Elsa. _'They don't think she's a threat? BIG mistake.'_ He thought to himself.

Elsa's hands looked like they were twitching. She was frozen; She had no idea what to do. She didn't want to kill them, but she couldn't let _them_ kill anyone. A wolf ran in her direction.

Elsa flinched. She didn't dare move for fear that if she did, she would realize just how dead she was. She didn't want to be dead.

A yelp was heard not twenty feet in front of her.

She opened her eyes to see a pedestal of ice jutting out from the ground at an angle. She looked for the wolf she had apparently thrown; She found him lying on a tree branch; probably not dead yet, but he soon would be. Elsa could have watched it slowly sliding off of the branch, but her attention was brought to the wolves still in front of her; they were shaken by the turn of events, but Kristoff noted that they were still not fearful

A small thud could have been heard as the now unconscious, or dead, wolf in the tree flopped to the ground.

Another wolf began charging at Elsa.

Before Elsa could react, a brown, stringed instrument crashed into his midsection sending him flying two feet and rolling five.

The rest of the wolves bolted.

"Okay, to reiterate what I said not too long ago," Anna started. "You could have been _a lot_ more helpful. You just delayed them. Counting the ones I caused to run away, I got rid of 37 wolves. How many did you get, Kristoff? She asked him.

"I didn't count." He lied. He didn't want to be further embarrassed by Anna's superiority in wolf-fighting.

"And Elsa got..." Anna looked at the wolf lying next to the tree. "... one."

Elsa formed a spike of ice mid-air and sent it flying towards the most-likely-dead wolf. It punctured the stomach of the creature.

Anna chuckled.

"That _still _only counts as _one_." Anna teased.

* * *

**YAY! I've gotten back to consistently writing decently long chapters... for me. a lot of people have, like 5,000 words per chapter, but, you know, baby step write longer chapters. This one's over 1,500 words... maybe I'll make that be the minimum word count for a while before knocking it up to 2,000.  
**


	11. The Meeting

...Several days later... In a forest not too far from the kingdom of Corona.

The King sat in his "throne". Looking around, he saw what actually just seemed to be a regular office. His fancy chair, the one he was currently mounted on, sat behind a fancy desk towards the rear end of the room.

It was a rather large room. A square about 20 feet by 20 feet with a roof about 15 feet high making just a few feet short of a cube. The walls of the room were littered with filing cabinets, dressers, and other storage units.

One wall held possibly one thousand pictures of women. The people didn't look to be connected at all, just a random assortment of folks. Among the pictures on the wall was a portrait of Anna. Another wall had a similar number, but of men. Kristoff was among the pictures. The wall that held the only entrance or exit from the room (Or at least the only _visible_ exit) housed fewer pictures than the other two. Each one in the picture had a black or white stripe through their hair. The final wall, the one behind the king, held fewer pictures than the first two walls but quite a few more than the third. Elsa's picture could be spotted among them.

The King-

His name is not actually "The King," mind you. Nor is it his title. He doesn't own any sort of kingdom. The land he's currently residing in legally belongs to the king of Corona, but he doubted that even Corona's king knew that. What he does own is a company, _his_ company. He doesn't really have a name for it; he is bad at coming up with names, so he just calls it his company. His employees don't own the company, so they just call it "_the_ company." As for why he calls himself "The King." Well, it is a lot more intimidating than "Jerry."

So, anyways.

The King looked anxious and excited. He settled his nerves when there came a knock at the door.

"Enter." He said with his deep thundering voice. Gosh, he was such an intimidating person. Tall, muscular, deep voiced, scars on his face... Why did his name have to be _J__erry_.

Seriously, what kind of name was "Jerry?" Did his mother not know he would be the leader of a group of mercenaries killing off killers who had magical abilities? Or did she know, and she just wanted to be cruel and ironic. Because The King hated his mother, and he knew that his mother hated him, he decided that she did, indeed, know his future, and named him Jerry to be cruel. 'Better than Shirley.' He decided.

Anyway.

A figure stepped through the door, hood covering his face.

"Welcome. How was your journey?" Asked The King.

"Cut the crap, why am I here?" The hooded man asked, obviously quite irritated.

"Your assignment is done, you are here awaiting your next one." He said.

"This couldn't have waited until I was _actually_ done?" The man still sounded angry.

"I wanted to test Philip." The King said calmly, despite his guest's frustrations.

"Test how much of an idiot he his?" He asked.

"To test his loyalty. Does he follow me, or his own kind?" The King asked rhetorically.

"Hmm... follow complete strangers? or follow _daddy_? Difficult question." The man said sarcastically.

"Similarities are strong. As are differences. If he found a similar super, and focused on his differences with me, who knows where his loyalty would lie." The King said.

The hooded man thought to his own father. Yes, he could see how something like that might... _change_... Philip's allegiance.

"But that is something you'll have to test constantly, is it not?" He finally spoke back up.

"Indeed."

"So, what happens when you're gone?"

The King's response was interrupted by yet another knock at the door.

The both turned to face it.

"Enter." Said The King. If the man wasn't wearing a hood, one could have seen his lips mock those of the one sitting behind him.

A blue-haired man with a black streak through his hair entered through the door a wicked smile on his face. Every few steps, the smile would disappear... only to come back a moment later.

Yep, this guy was crazy.

"Philip." The King started plainly. "Success, I presume."

"Not exactly." Philip responded.

"Fool!" The hooded man shouted.

"Ah." The King sounded understandably disappointed. "What do you mean 'not exactly?'"

"I mean it was a complete failure, your highness." Philip mocked. If he weren't completely mad, and his son, The King probably would have killed him then. He didn't quite know why, but he seemed to have a soft spot for both Philip and the other man currently keeping him company.

"What happened?" The King asked losing his patience fast.

"The wolves had the girl surrounded, but guests came to help her." Philip informed them.

"Who were these 'guests?'" The hooded man asked fiercely. "What were their names?!"

"Animals care not for given names; they make their own based on deeds." Philip informed his co-worker.

"What name did they receive, then?!" The hooded man had lost his patience. You could hardly tell he had any to begin with. Maybe he didn't.

"Two names were mentioned in passing and were probably not important. One, though, they spoke with intense fear." Philip stalled.

"What was the name?!" The hooded man was ready to kill Philip, despite their... slight friendship.

"They called her 'The Fearsome Lute-Wielder.'" Answered Philip.

"That means nothing to me. What were the other names?"

"The man, they called 'Coward,' and the other woman, 'Ice Queen.'" Philip said with another smile.

The hooded man slammed his fist against the desk, ignoring the protests of The King.

"You didn't think _I_ would recognize '_Ice Queen_?'" The hooded man almost growled out his question.

"I didn't say that." The grin never faltered. "I said 'probably not important.'"

"The _Queen_ of _Arendelle_?!"

"'_Probably_.'" Philip reminded. The last sight he saw for a while was a fist with two prominent knuckles hurtling toward his eyes.

The grin faltered.

The hooded man began walking toward the door, stepping over the now unconscious Philip. All the while The King was calling for him to stop.

"Excuse me!"

"Hey!"

"Listen!"

"You there!"

"_Hans!_" The hooded man stopped and slowly turned on his heel.

"I told you-"

"Who is here to know?" The King asked.

Hans brought his hidden-from-view eyes to Philip lying on the cold, hard ground.

"What do you plan to do?" The King asked harshly.

"My job." Hans responded, his tone as cold as Elsa's ice.

"Well, make sure you do it quietly!" The King commanded. "We've survived this long only by staying in the shadows. Make _sure_ all that the queen and princess know is that she is gone. dead or on vacation, I do not care, just so long as it can't be traced to us."

Hans walked out of the building and into the forest.

The small castle could barely be seen from any side but the entrance. They designed it that way, he'd learned that on one of his first days, So no one would just stumble upon it.

As Hans journeyed back to Arendelle he noticed a small bird following him on his quest.

'Philip must think I'm an idiot.' He thought to himself.

* * *

As Philip opened his eyes, he heard the voice of his father.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." The King said.

"The land of the dead is boring. And dark." Came his slurred response.

He sat up to find himself alone with his father. Hans had left.

"How long ago did he leave?" Philip asked.

"Almost as soon as you went unconscious."

"Which was?" Philip almost sounded normal... he hated it.

"An hour ago, at least." The King answered back.

"Is it just me, or has he been increasingly irritated recently?" Philip asked.

"Nobody likes to be reminded of their failure, and Arendelle is the site of his biggest one." The King informed his son.

"That guy needs to just... _let it go._" Philip said.

"I'm not following" The King said.

"You're not supposed to." Philip said. Clearly, he'd regained his crazy.

"I worry about you sometimes."

"You won't have to for much longer..." Philip trailed off.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how would you feel if I brought animals in to work for you?" Philip Asked.

"I don't know about that." The King said.

"I would tell them to follow your every order unconditionally; I'll make sure they're smart; And -the best bit- they'll be working for no pay."

The king didn't mind having extra workers without needing to pay them.

* * *

**I apologize to anyone named "Jerry" or "Shirley" I needed more words and so I tried to think of a non-threatening name for The King to rant about. I personally have nothing against those names. Fun fact: This chapter is 1,499 words without this part. *Whispers* I cheated!  
**


	12. A Dream of Eternal Winter

The day after the wolf attack

"Anna."

She awoke to her name along side a knock at her door.

"Huh?" She said sleepily.

"Anna." The voice came through the door again.

"Yeah?" She yawned.

she could vaguely hear a chuckle enter her ears from behind the door.

"Sorry to wake you-"

"No, no, no! I've been up for hours..." She dosed off using her hand to support her head.

Slowly, her head slipped out of her hand and she jolted awake from the sensation of falling.

"Who is it?!"

There was that chuckle again.

"Elsa." Came the answer.

"OH! Elsa, come in!" Anna said as she, at a blindingly fast pace, jumped out of bed and put on her dress for the day. Her dress was absolutely stunning, but that didn't stop her from feeling under-dressed as her sister walked in. Of course, Anna knew she was beautiful. Kristoff never really _stopped_ saying that, but he was supposed to say that.

Anna always felt a bit... self-conscious around her sister. Elsa was so calm; in control; beautiful; not to mention her powers! Anna had no way of knowing, but Elsa felt the same way around her. Anna somehow still had the innocence that Elsa had lost years ago; she wasn't afraid, not of Elsa, not of wolves, not of anything; she was trusting; she was... _normal_. Of course, Elsa loved her magic, but even with the love and attempts to let the fear go, it still clung to her.

"What are you doing here?" Anna asked. "I thought you had queen stuff?"

"I thought I did, too, but when we returned, my adviser informed me that the meeting was canceled." Elsa answered.

"So, we could have stayed at the Ice Palace longer..." Anna sounded disappointed, and her head sinking down confirmed it.

"Anna, leaving when we did allowed us to meet Isabel." Anna's face lightened at the mention of their new friend- well, Anna liked to think of her as a friend. She was one of those people who talks to you and five minutes later thinks you're best friends... of course, that was _before_ Hans. _After _Hans it was, like, an hour.

Anna dashed past Elsa; through the door; and down the hall. She was heading straight for the guest bedroom. Anna was yards down the hall before Elsa even realized she'd left. She smiled and shook her head back and forth before darting through the halls after her sister.

* * *

Isabel was dreaming about "The Great Freeze"_  
_

_Isabel stood by her fire in the cold night... "Cold..." _

_What should be said was "Colder than usual night" because even this was comfortable to Isabel. The cold had never really bothered her. In fact, besides the cold nights of winter she never felt cold. Even that, though, wasn't a particular bother. She enjoyed feeling cold. Most people hated it, but she reveled in the sub-zero temperatures. If she wasn't confident she would die doing it, she'd skinny dip in the winter water._

_Anyway..._

_Over of Isabel's fire, there were some sticks supporting a frying pan, and in that, there was a fish. Not a large fish, but enough to keep her happy and healthy. Even though she didn't _need_ to cook the fish over a fire, she did it anyway. She liked cooking. She liked taking something and making it into something else, and cooking the fish like this made her feel... _normal...

_The temperature dropped fast as a harsh wind blew. Isabel shivered. In the summertime. For the first time in... forever, actually._

_she ran toward the river fully expecting it to be frozen solid as that seemed to be the required temperature for her to be cold. _

_What she saw took her breath away._

_from up north a wave of ice was spreading across the water. The place where the water met the ice was glowing unnaturally; unnaturally, but beautifully._

_Shortly after the river froze snowflakes started falling ever so slowly. _

_Isabel shook herself out of it. She hadn't been entranced by snow like this since she was little. She couldn't help but smile to herself as she felt the goosebumps on her skin, but she did nothing to rid herself of them. _

_For the next few hours she built snowmen; slid down hills on large chunks of tree bark; and slid around on the ice. She wished she had someone to share this time with, but her mother was dead; her father was who knows where, not to mention who knows _who_; and her brother had left when her mother died... _jerk_. _

_Isabel felt like she was forgetting something. Something she'd wanted to do? She couldn't tell._

_She sniffled and instinctively ran her hand under her eyes to wipe the tears._

_When had she started crying? _

Why_ had she started crying?_

_She wasn't hurt; it was definitely sadness that made her cry, but why was she sad? Her isolation? She'd always been happy alone. Her meal? Sure it wasn't the most extravagant, but that was nothing to shed tears over. Her family? She never knew her father, nothing to be sad about or regret. She hated her brother, no tears for him; she wouldn't allow it. Her mother was the only one she felt they might be for. She was wrong, but she let them flow for her mother anyway._

_Eventually she found that she'd exhausted about everything she could do, so she simply resumed her regular life of being a survivor in the wilds. Ice fishing; making shelters; and moving every couple of days as to not risk finding anyone and/or depleting the resources around her. She came up against remarkably less resistance from nature as she usually did. She guessed that nature was trying too hard not to succumb to an early winter, and it was doing a good job of it. Miraculously, things were still green and growing, albeit a bit slower than usual. Birds and other animals were still up and about as well.  
_

_She heard knocking against wood and looked up to see a woodpecker sitting on one of the trees._

* * *

Anna knocked on the guest bedroom door.

Elsa caught up to Anna.

"Anna!" Elsa whispered angrily such that it almost sound like a hiss.

"What?" Anna asked much too loudly for Elsa's comfort, so Elsa put her finger over her lips to shush Anna.

"I think we should give Isabel as much sleep as possible. Who knows the last time she's been in a comfortable bed." Elsa said, regaining her calm composure.

"What am I supposed to do until she gets up? I want to formally meet her, get to know her, why she's here, all that cool stuff." Anna was rambling a bit which wasn't out of the norm.

"Go... be with Kristoff, or something. I don't care, but I think we should be hospitable to our guest and allow her as much sleep as her body can take." Elsa said.

Anna had stopped really paying attention at the end. All she really heard was "Don't wake Isabel" and "Go see Kristoff." She waited for Elsa to stop talking, and then she ran off to meet Kristoff, hoping the "okay" she gave Elsa on the way out worked with what her sister had said and wouldn't get her into trouble later.

Down the hall she ran, heading off to the small cottage they had given to Kristoff as a permanent dwelling place.

* * *

Anna knocked furiously at the door into Kristoff's cottage... think that to herself she found that she like the sound of it.

"Kristoff's cottage, Kristoff's cottage, Kristoff's cottage." She giggled to herself until she realized exactly what she was giggling at.

"Why do find that funny?" She asked herself, but Kristoff, who had answered the door several seconds ago and was just waiting for her to notice, answered anyway.

"I have no idea."

"Kristoff!" Anna cried as she leaped into a hug with him.

Kristoff stumbled back a few steps from the shock of his girlfriend now clinging to his neck like a large necklace. She fell from his neck, and he gave her peck on the lips. Her cheeks blushed.

They just stared at each other for a long while. Kristoff was the one to break the silence.

"Alright. um... so, why don't you come in?" He motioned into the house.

Anna blushed again.

"Oh, right. yes, of course." She followed Kristoff's suggestion and walked through the door.

It was a small cottage. More of a hut, really. It just had four rooms. A bedroom for him and Sven who, at the moment, was curled up asleep in front of a small fire; a kitchen; a bathroom which Kristoff never used because he prefers to go outside, so it's there more to be courteous to visitors; and a living area which was where Sven was lying.

Kristoff, with his arm around Anna, guided her to the loveseat which sat in front of a small table which sat in front of the fire. They sat down and Kristoff began to cuddle Anna, gently peting her.

"So, has our mysterious stranger been up yet?" He asked.

"No, that's actually part of why I'm here. Elsa felt that we should let her rest, and she suggested I come here!" She explained.

Kristoff raised an eyebrow.

"I see. So you didn't just come here to see me?"

"Of course I came just to see you! It's just... there were different reasons for me to come here just to see you. Wait..." Anna tried to work out exactly what she'd said, but Kristoff interrupted her train of thought with a kiss.

"I was just teasing you, Anna." Kristoff chuckled.

They just sat in silence for a while, basking in each other's company until the knock at the door finally came.


	13. A Tale of the Past

"Kristoff?" Anna said.

"What is it, Anna?" He asked.

"Tell me about your childhood."

Kristoff blinked as the request sunk in.

"Is _Anna_ interested in the _past_?" He teased.

She playfully hit him in the arm.

"Alright, feisty-pants. What do you you want to know?" He asked.

"What was life in the wilderness like?"

Rather than answer her question quickly, he told her about the events leading to his adoption by the trolls

* * *

_-Almost 16 years ago-_

A seven year-old Kristoff was running through the forest with tears streaming down his face. Dodging trees and other obstacles in front of him. He had begun his mad journey through the woods at noon, and it didn't end until the sun went down.

Once the sun had disappeared underneath the horizon, Kristoff climbed a tree and cried himself to sleep.

He dreamed about the reason he'd run away from home in the first place.

_Jared and Donna Bjorgman had wanted a daughter. The gods, being the comedians that they are, gave them a son._

_Kristoff's parents weren't cruel to him, but they weren't loving either. He learned from a very early age that anything he wanted he would have to get himself. Sure, his parents provided a roof; food; and clothing made from old rags stitched together, but beyond that, he was alone. Kristoff assumed that this was how parents were with their children until his parents got another one._

_Kristoff was four when his mother became pregnant again, but he was five by the time she gave birth to his little sister, Natalie._

_It was then that Kristoff knew his place in the family. Any time anyone wanted anything, it was Kristoff's job. Natalie got ornate dresses, dresses that would make many royals jealous, but he still got rags roughly sewn together. His parents bought her toys, but none for him. She got birthday celebrations and Christmas presents, but he didn't know what Christmas was until Natalie was born. Her room was bright and colorfully decorated, but his was dull and plain because he had to buy everything himself, and a five year old boy doesn't have much money.  
_

_Kristoff began to resent his younger sister. Sure it was his parents that were favoring Natalie over him, but she was rubbing his face in it, even at such an early age. __Among other things_, he would cry until he would enter the room, and then she would play with her toys... her eyes never leaving his.  


Kristoff woke up to the sun beaming into his face.

Kristoff looked around; he had no idea where he was.

He decided that if he were to live out here in the wild, he would need some place to stay, and he would need to remember where it was.

The rest of the day was, once again, spent traveling through the wilderness looking for some obvious potential living space, but the day was wasted. Once again Kristoff climbed a tree and fell asleep among its branches.

_Kristoff had been doing odd jobs for a long time; he had been trying to earn enough money to buy something for himself. On his seventh birthday, Kristoff bought himself a small sled. He'd loved sliding down hills made of snow, but large pieces of tree bark couldn't get all that fast and tended to break easily. However, once he came home, his parents took the small sled and gave it to his two year-old sister. Natalie and her parents all went out to go sledding, but Kristoff was sent to his room for being disrespectful towards his parents and sister. _

_As soon as they were gone, he ran._

Kristoff awoke with the sun rising above the horizon.

He climbed down the tree and began his search for a permanent house anew.

As he was walking through the trees he heard voices.

"Alright! Back up to the North Mountain." A deep, gruff voice said.

"Where else would we go? Everything else is thawed this time of year." The second voice was indiscernible from the first. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Kristoff could see multiple men walking along a path through the forest, he would have thought that it was just one, slightly insane, man.

His ears perked up at the mention of a mountain. He would certainly remember that he lived on top of a mountain, so he followed them.

He followed them for much of the day. His small legs were hard at work keeping up with the men, but he managed it.

When the men finally stopped atop a small plateau and cut into a nearby lake, Kristoff fell into the snow. The cold of the snow along with its softness helped to soothe him. He lost track of exactly how long he'd been there when a man finally noticed him lying there.

"Hey, son. Where did you come from?" The man asked Kristoff.

Kristoff noticed the man... everything about him was brownish. Brown hair; brown eyes; tan skin; brown clothing; and brown shoes. If it weren't for the fact that they were working with snow and ice, he would have thought the man was just dirty. The man kept eye contact with Kristoff.

"Who? Me? ...I... followed you through the woods... I heard you were going to a mountain." Kristoff answered.

"Your parents must be worried sick!" Kristoff's expression turned grim at the man's words.

"I'm... I'm an orphan." Kristoff lied.

The man put a soft smile on his face.

"Listen, kid. Lots of kids run away from home at some point in their lives, and their parents are _always _worried." The man saw through Kristoff's lie.

"You're from Arendelle, right?" Kristoff asked.

"Yes."

"Tell me, sir. Are there any missing child posters? Anyone looking for their son?"

The man swallowed. He hadn't heard of any child from Arendelle missing.

"I left this morning, kid. I couldn't have known of you running off."

"I left two days ago."

The man nearly had tears running down his face... manly tears.

"What is your name, son?"

"Kristoff."

"Nice to meet you, Kristoff. I am Thomas."

* * *

**Allow me to take this time to apologize profusely to all of you for the time in between these chapters! I started writing it but then found that the chapter in its first form progressed the story far quicker than I wanted it to. Once I decided the new path the chapter should take, however, I wrote the whole thing in once sitting. It took a few hours but I got it to the form I liked it in. When I went to save it, I found I had been inexplicably signed out of Fanfiction and, therefore, could not properly save the chapter, losing everything! Needless to say, I was pissed, and I took a long break from writing for a while. I'm back from my temper tantrum, though, so here to some new chapters! What do you think of this one? Like what I did with Kristoff? I don't think he said his parents were dead; I think he said "When I was a kid, it was just me and Sven" no mention of death. Anyway, like it? Hate it? Any suggestions for the future?**


	14. Sven

**After I posted the chapter I realized that the way I left it made Thomas seem... significant. He really isn't. I didn't know how to properly continue the story past that point. I openly admit I was lazy. I was also feeling guilty that it took me so long to post another chapter so I didn't want to take a break to think about what to do. Sorry for any confusion.  
**

* * *

Kristoff, once again, followed the ice harvesters down the mountain. Thomas had given him a bag of carrots and his spare knife to cut them up with.

"I wish I could help you more, lad." Thomas told him. "But all I have on me are those." He nodded to the carrots and knife in his hands.

"I'll bring more tomorrow for you. Until then, good night Kristoff."

"Good-... Good night." Kristoff waved to him.

He climbed a tree close to the path so as to be able to hear and see the ice harvesters as they walked past him on the way up to the mountain.

Taking the bag of carrots and his knife, he pulled out a carrot and cut it into slices with his knife.

He ate several of the carrots before nodding off to sleep.

...

He awoke to the sound of wolves howling.

Looking around, he saw it was still night. The moon shined bright in the sky as to light the night, so Kristoff could see.

He heard a noise that didn't sound like wolves of to his right. Looking in that direction he saw several reindeer running through the woods. They were running from the wolves, Kristoff guessed. A few of the reindeer saw Kristoff up in the tree and ran to it. One of them lifted a small calf onto his nose and lifted him as high as he could to the tree.

It couldn't reach high enough.

Kristoff reached out as far as he could, but he was just a few inches off.

He saw motion in the corner of his eye. The wolves were coming.

Without thinking, Kristoff leaped from the tree to the ground; hopped onto the back of the reindeer; and lifted the calf onto the branch.

He tried to climb back onto the branch himself, but a wolf leaped at him and tackled him to the forest floor.

The reindeer bolted.

Kristoff was underneath a wolf; it seemed to be reveling in his kill, enjoying Kristoff's fear.

The wolf learned his lesson the hard way. Don't waste time in getting what you want, or it will be snatched from you.

The wolf fell on top of Kristoff; it was dead.

Kristoff couldn't move until the wolf carcass was slid off of him. When it was, he saw a familiar man, holding a knife tinted red with wolf blood.

"You don't strike me as the kind of kid to risk his life for a _reindeer._" Thomas said.

"Why are you here? Didn't you say you were going back?" Kristoff asked him.

"Didn't you say you were an orphan? People lie, kid. Besides, what kind of person would I be if I let a ten year-old kid sleep in the forest without protection?"

"I'm seven."

"Even worse."

More wolves could be seen advancing on them.

"Kristoff, get back in the tree." Thomas commanded.

"No, I want to help."

"If you want to help, get back in the tree so I don't have to keep my eye on _you_ instead of the wolves."

Kristoff didn't move.

"Get up there now, or I will tie you to the branches myself."

Kristoff reluctantly walked to the tree and began to climb up into its branches.

Thomas smiled.

"Alright!" He yelled.

"Now that the kids are in bed, we have the house to ourselves!"

"COME ON, THEN!"

The wolves, as if on cue, ran at him.

Kristoff was amazed at the man's speed and strength as well as his skill in combat.

He was keeping the wolves at bay with nothing but his witt, strength, and skill.

Well, and the knife.

The knife helped.

Kristoff could do nothing but watch as Thomas, seemingly effortlessly, threw wolves off of his back; stabbed others; and kicked even more. The man's strength was incredible. ... Strength of an ice harvester, Kristoff decided.

finally, the wolves began to gain the upper hand against Thomas. They bit his arm, gnawed at his legs, and clawed at his chest.

Kristoff wanted desperately to help his new friend, but he was frozen with fear.

The small reindeer, however, was not.

He leaped from the branch and dove onto the wolves below. Landing on the head of one, he knocked it unconscious, but a baby reindeer is not very useful in a fight against wolves.

Except as a distraction.

Thomas took advantage of the wolves confusion and shook the wolves off of him, stabbing many of them to death. The rest ran off in fright.

Thomas stood tall and proud as the wolves left. _Until_ the wolves left. Thomas collapsed onto the ground once the wolves were all gone.

Kristoff, grabbing the carrots and his knife, jumped from the branch down to the man.

"Kristoff," He stared weakly. "Go back to your family." Then his eyes shut closed and fell limp in front of Kristoff.

Kristoff knew the man needed help. He looked around and saw a piece of a tree trunk. It seemed to be about as tall as the man and was cut vertically in half.

"Hey, boy!" Kristoff said to the reindeer.

"You think you could pull that?" Kristoff pointed to the log.

The small reindeer looked at kistoff blankly.

"I would help!" Kristoff insisted.

The reindeer seemed to get a smile on his face and began running and jumping from the man to the log.

Working together, they were able to get Thomas onto the half-log and, using rope that Thomas had on him, Kristoff tied the reindeer calf to it.

As the reindeer pulled the log along the path, Kristoff pushed from behind.

After what seemed like forever, they made it into Arendelle. Kristoff searched the town for someplace to put Thomas, but he was also looking for any sign of anyone looking for him. For a while he wasn't able to find either. Eventually, though, he saw the physician's place of business. He knocked on the door hard and fast, not stopping until the man opened the door. When he did, he looked from Kristoff, to the reindeer, to the man lying on the log.

Without saying anything, the physician picked the man up from the log and brought him inside. He poked his head out the door after a few seconds and said to Kristoff:

"Go home, lad. I'll hopefully have em all stitched up in the mornin'."

Kristoff stepped back from the door as the physician closed it. He walked to the wall of the building, leaned against it, and slowly slid to the ground, so he was sitting with his back against the wall. The reindeer followed Kristoff to the wall and sat next to him. After a few minutes of silence, the reindeer jumped onto Kristoff's lap and began licking him. Kristoff began laughing.

"Hey!" He giggled. "Stop it!"

Kristoff pushed the reindeer off of him.

"Are you hungry, boy?"

Kristoff could have sworn the reindeer smiled and nodded to him.

"Alright."

He brought out the bag of carrots and his knife. Taking a carrot in his hand, he was about to cut in half when the reindeer came and snatched it out of his hand. He was about to swollow it when Kristoff said:

"Ah, ah. Share." The reindeer spit the carrot out and Kristoff grabbed the end of it. As Kristoff began to pull the carrot out of his new reindeer's mouth, it bit down, breaking the carrot in half with his teeth.

Kristoff shrugged his shoulders and began eating the rest of the carrot.

"I think I'll call you Sven." He said when he was finished chewing. The reindeer smiled, stuck his tongue out, and wagged his little tail.

Kristoff relaxed against the wall, and Sven snuggled up under his arm.

After a while, both child and reindeer fell asleep.

* * *

**HELLO! I hope you enjoyed that! I meant for this whole back-story to be one chapter, but it's become three! I LOVE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS! It means I don't have to think of more filler content to stretch the story out. Anyway, please leave a review telling me your thought, how much you liked it, or anything I could do better in the future! Hope to see you soon with another chapter!**

**-0hsnap10... but you already knew that... probably.**


	15. Interruptions

Kristoff woke up to a boot kicking his own.

He opened his eyes. First, he saw the sun shining down on him. Second, he saw Sven looking from him to someone else. Third, he saw the someone else, who turned out to be Thomas.

"Did you stay out here all day waiting for me?" Thomas asked him.

"All night." Kristoff corrected.

"No, my friend. It's the afternoon now."

Kristoff brought his eyes back up to the sun. Sure enough, it was set just toward the west.

"I see the reindeer's still here." Thomas nodded toward the creature he was referring to.

"I named him Sven." Kristoff said, looking at Thomas with a smile.

Sven did the same.

"Of course you did." Thomas said, returning the smile.

* * *

Over the next few days Kristoff attempted to help the ice harvesters. He wasn't all that much help since we was small, but many of the ice harvesters took pity upon him and gave him some of their profits from selling the ice.

In time, he had enough money to buy himself a small sleigh to replace the one his parents stole and some tools to aid him in his own harvesting.

* * *

There was a stir in the kingdom of Arendelle. Kristoff had already sold the only ice block he could obtain today, so there wasn't anything preventing him from going to the docks where the royal family was returning to port. Many Arendellians(?) were gathered around to welcome them home. And a warm welcome the family received. The king, the queen, Princess Elsa, and the young Princess Anna all came out with stoic faces. Well, all except Anna who seemed to be trying all she could to hold back her excitement but failing miserably.

* * *

Now:

Kristoff stole a peek at Anna to see her reaction. She was failing to look angry.

"Why, it actually looked kinda like that." He teased her.

She chuckled.

* * *

About 15 years ago:

Long after the royal family had retreated to the castle, many citizens of the kingdom kept around the docks, talking amongst each other.

Kristoff used the fact that everyone was distracted to his advantage. He sneaked aboard the ship followed closely by Sven.

He didn't know what had convinced him it was a good idea to board the ship, (He also didn't know what had convinced him this was a good part of the story to tell Anna) but it was. There was extra food sitting for anyone who was willing to take it, and even one cushion that was found on there was loads more comfortable that his bed back at home, not to mention his current sleeping places.

He found a bunch of carrots and shared them with Sven before nodding off to sleep for the night.

* * *

"You're going to pay for all the food you stole." The current Anna told her boyfriend.

"Aren't I already doing that by dating you?" He asked teasingly.

Anna gasped, smacked Kristoff on the shoulder, and kissed his cheek.

"I'm getting mixed signals."

"Just shut up and finish the story." Anna commanded.

"Alright. Alright."

* * *

Kristoff woke up and grabbed Sven.

He poked his head out from below deck to scout if anyone would see his escape.

No one. Good.

He walked towards the outskirts of Arendelle to wait for the other ice harvesters to come around.

Eventually, they came and Sven and Kristoff joined them. Sven and Kristoff worked hard along the ice harvesters, but got few, generally only one per trip, and small blocks of ice which meant considerably less money than the more grown ice harvesters did.

Thomas always offered Kristoff a cut of his earnings, but unless Kristoff was starving, which he almost never was due to the royal ships being well-stocked, (Kristoff received a glare from the current Anna) he would never accept it.

* * *

A knock at the door interrupted Kristoff from his story. Anna looked at him apologetically.

"It's fine. Really the next interesting thing was when you guys went to see the trolls. Which, I'm sure you know all about that encounter." Kristoff said.

But when Anna stared at him blankly, he added: "I'll tell you about that later, then."

Anna ran to the door and yanked it open, fully expecting to see her sister.

"Els-" She wasn't expecting Kai.

She cleared her throat to try and cover up her mistake. It didn't work.

"Excuse me. Kai. What can I do for you?" She asked even though she was confident what the answer was.

"Queen Elsa sent me to retrieve you, your majesty." Kai bowed. "Lady Isabella has awoken and her majesty the queen knew you would like to be present during any and all meetings with our newest guest."

"She's staying in the castle?" Kristoff asked.

"For now." Kai and Anna answer at the same time.

"Alright! Bye, Kristoff!" She kissed him on the cheek.

"Bye, Anna." He replied sweetly.

"Bye, Sven." She patted him on the head.

"Bye, Anna." Kristoff replied in his goofy Sven voice.

Anna laugh slightly before dashing through the door and towards the castle, leaving Kai and Kristoff to stare awkwardly at each other.

Kai nodded toward Kristoff. "Kristoff."

Kristoff returned his nod. "Kai."

"Well, I should be getting back to the castle. I have duties as head servant." Kai said before bowing slightly at Kristoff and turning back toward the castle himself.

Kristoff walked slowly toward the door and pushed it shut.

Sven walked up next to Kristoff and nudged him slightly with his antler before making a small huff.

"If you were looking for the opportune moment to propose," Sven started through Kristoff before finishing with: "that was it."

"I know, buddy." Kristoff said hanging his head down.

"I know."

**ALRIGHT! This is the last short chapter I give you... probably... hopefully. I promise, but I do not pinky promise. Breaking promises is fine but pinky promises? No! Plus I can't even pinky promise with you guys... you cannot intertwine pinkies over the internet... I don't think. Somebody will have to alert me if I'm wrong about this. Either way, I'm not so sure I know exactly where to go in the story at this point, and this seemed like the best stopping point, so despite being short I felt that this was the best place to end it. Although, just because I don't know what to write _now_ won't mean that I won't know what to write _later_, so this writer's block might not even last that long... who knows? You've read this whole note? God bless you, you're awesome. If you're still here and want to review that would be cool. Favorites and follows are also quite awesome as it shows me that I'm not _completely _wasting my time. ANYWAY! I'll leave you now. Goodbye!**

**-0hsnap10**


	16. For the First Time in Never

**THIS CHAPTER WAS UPLOADED AS AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE! THIS HAS NO RELEVANCE TO THE STORY! or does it?  
**

* * *

Prince Hans awoke to a knocking at his door.

"Prince Hans."

"Prince Hans."

"Huh? Y- Yeah?" he said, yawning.

"Sorry to wake you, sir."

"No! no, you didn't." Another big yawn. "I've been up for hours."

Hans, once again nodded off to sleep, this time using his hand to keep himself upright, but his head was slowly slipping down.

The sensation of falling jolted Hans awake.

"Who is it?"

"Still me, sir. The gates will open soon, time to get ready!"

Hans looked completely and utterly out of it... because he was.

"Right... ready for what?"

"Your brother's coronation, sir...?"

"My brother's... corneration."

Hans almost went back to sleep, but then those words sunk in. not "Corneration," but "Coronation"!

"It's coronation day!"

"IT'S CORONATION DAY!"

Hans did something then that he rarely did. He started singing.

"The window is open," He sand as he watched a servant open the windows.

"So's that door." He turned to a some doors that were also being opened by servants. It was quite strange because he was singing in singular, but everything he was referring to was happening in plural.

"I didn't know they did that anymore." Hans must have realized how stupid it sounded to everyone present that he had no idea that windows and doors were still capable of opening. Or maybe he didn't.

"Who knew we owned eight thousand salad plates?" Hans sang as he passed by ten servants carrying fifty-seven plates each for a grand total of five hundred seventy.

"For years I've roamed these empty halls." He sang as he ran through the halls, but, bursting into the ball room, he added:

"Why have a ball room with no balls? Finally they're open up the gate!" He slid down the staircase railing until it ended, and he jumped off in front of a suit of armor.

"There'll be actual real live people." Hans sang as he walked up the suit of armor and shook its hand, accidentally breaking its arm off. As he tried to put the arm back, Hans sang:

"It'll be totally strange, but _wow_ am I so ready for this change!" He ran to the window; climbing out of it, onto the bench used to clean the windows, he hoisted himself up with the rope so that he could see the ships sailing in.

"'Cause for the first time in forever, there'll be music, there'll be light!"

"For the first time in forever, I'll be dancing through the night." Hans sang as he swung on the bench that hung outside the castle.

As if Hans had teleportation, he found himself in the castle garden. He shrugged of this strange occurrence and simply sang, in a very cheery way:

"Don't know if I'm elated or gassy, but I'm somewhere in that zone." He walked over to some ducks and began kneeling down in front of them.

"'Cause for the fist time in forever," a few of the baby ducks jumped up into his hand. "I won't be alone."

Oh, good. He stopped sing...

But he began talking to the ducks

"I can't wait to meet everyone." He gasped at the fact the he was talking to _ducks_.

Oh, wait. No. He just had an idea.

"What if I meet _the_ one." One of the ducks jumped forward to remind Hans of the fact that he was talking to _ducks_.

Crap, he's singing again.

"Tonight imagine me suit and all fetchingly draped against the wall." Hans leaned against the wall of the window. He grabbed the rope that controlled the curtains and began twirling it.

"The picture of sophisticated grace." Hans accidentally hit himself with the rope and made a mental note to _burn that rope for its acts against him later._

"I suddenly see him standing there." Hans fixed his hard and put on his charm as he winked at a bust of himself sitting on a table.

"A beautiful man, tall with red hair." He walked over to the bust and pretended to be nervous.

"I wanna stuff some chocolate in my face." It became apparent to anyone within earshot the Hans, the prince of Arendelle, was a glutton.

"But then we laugh and talk all evening, which is totally bizarre!" His lyrics were lies, he actually talked to himself all the time. It wasn't that bizarre at all.

"Nothing like the life I've lead so far." He began running into the room full of portraits of himself... he loved that room.

He began posing in front of each and every picture in the room, becoming exact copies of them, since he, himself, was already an exact copy of them.

"For the first time in forever, there'll be magic, there'll be fun."

"For the first time in forever," He gasped as he held his hand down to a painting of Hans pretending to kiss someone's hand.

"I could be noticed by someone."

"And I know that it's totally crazy to dream I'd find romance." He sand as he continued to mimic the paintings.

"But for the first time in forever, at least I've got a chance."

* * *

A couple minutes earlier.

* * *

Hans stood in his room looking out the window. He had the dress he was going to wear for his coronation on, and he was watching the other guests walk towards the castle.

He just stood there...

As if... waiting...

Um... Hans?

Hans?!

Oh Hans!

He sensed it was his turn and drew in a breath.

"Don't let them in. Don't let them see. Be the good boy you always have to be." He turned from the window, slipped his gloves off, and grabbed a candlestick and some other object from his dresser.

"Conceal, don't feel." He turned back to the window objects in hand mimicking the pose of painting of himself behind him. "Put on a show."

Frost began to form on the candlestick and other object. Hans quickly turned back and put them, once again on his dresser.

"Make one wrong move and everyone will know."

"But it's only for today." Hans sang as he began to walk toward the door.

* * *

"It's only for today!" Hans sand as he leaned forward, holding a beam so that he would not fall.

* * *

"It's agony to wait." Hans sang as he grabbed the handles on the door to his room and began pulling them open.

* * *

"It's agony to wait!" Hans sang as he walked slowly toward the castle gate.

* * *

"Tell the guards to open up..." Hans paused for dramatic effect. He liked pausing for dramatic effect because dramatic effect had a certain effect that makes everthing *Pauses for dramatic effect* dramatic. Although, the pause was far too long, so long, in fact, that many of the servants had contemplated telling the guards to write letters to their psychiatrists, thinking the queen was just leaving it at that. but finally, Hans uttered: "... the gate."

* * *

"The gate!" Hans sang as he walked out the gate and into the assembled crowd of Hans.

_At his point in the song, two Hans began to sing over each other and the narrator could not follow both of them, and before you ask, yes this is another narrator narrating the struggles of the first narrator. Sadly, he quit because he could not handle focusing on both Hans at the same time._

_"It was confusing to begin with." He had said. "Now they're singing at the same time!"_

___Also sadly, I cannot handle it either, so I am simpl_y going to skip over that part.  


_"I know it all ends tomorrow, so it has to be today!" Hans sang as he walked through some little shops until he got to the docks._

_"'Cause for the first time in forever..."  
_

'Blast!' _thought Hans as he forgot what the next words were. He thought maybe if he started over he would remember._

_"For the first time in forever," He did. Hans was so happy that he started running around on the docks singing:  
_

_"Nothing's in my waaaaaaaaaaaa-" Before he could finish the last note however, a horse came out of nowhere and ran straight into him!_

* * *

Hans opened his eyes. Looking around, he could see he was in the forests near Arendelle.

He thought back to his dream, and only two words were able to escape his lips.

"So... beautiful..."

* * *

**HAPPY APRIL FOOLS EVERYBODY!  
**


	17. Like Sisters Already

Elsa and Isabella waited in silence for Arendelle's princess to arrive.

The princess in question was running through the streets of Arendelle dodging happy, playing children and frustrated adults.

If she had been anyone besides a member of the royal family, she would, in all likelihood, have had a multitude of complaints filed against her for her reckless running about.

Finally, she made it to the castle, and the children turned into furniture, and the adults turned into servants. She stopped only once, and that once was to ask where exactly Elsa was. Once she got her answer, the mad dash began anew.

Elsa and Isabella soon heard rapid footsteps approaching. They turned to face the only entrance into the sitting room.

Anna almost made it to the room in which her sister and potential new best friend resided. As soon as she began to round the corner and enter the room, her feet betrayed her. They simply refused to move forward, but sadly her body kept its momentum and continued forward.

Anna fell flat on her face in the doorway.

_'Lovely first impression...'_ Anna thought as she kissed the carpet.

She heard their guest hold back laughter, and she heard her sister trying to sound concerned while also holding back laughter.

"Anna!" Elsa cried as she jumped from her seat and ran to her sister.

With Elsa's help, Anna was brought back to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Elsa asked hurriedly.

"I'm fine." Anna responded.

"Are you hurt?" Elsa questioned, seemly ignoring her sister.

"I'm fine." Anna repeated.

"Do you have a concussion?" Elsa continued to act like Anna's mother which didn't happen much.

"I'm fine." Anna began to get frustrated.

Elsa realized what she was doing and locked eyes with Anna before a smile came to her face.

"Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

"Want to what?!" Anna did her best to look offended. "I'm not five, Elsa. In fact, quadruple that. I'm twenty."

Anna waited the perfect amount of time before adding.

"Go ahead."

All present began to laugh.

Elsa brought her lips to Anna's forehead before hugging her quickly and returning to her seat.

Anna gave a small smile before finding a seat herself.

"You, my sister, are a klutz." Elsa teased, and Anna frowned.

"I ran from Kristoff's all the way here without any incident, besides that one guy's cabbage cart, but the second I actually arrive, I fall on my face."

Elsa glanced at their visitor and Anna's eyes followed.

"So, I'm Princess Anna, and that's Queen Elsa, but I'm sure you already knew that because you were there last night when we introduced ourselves- OH! Kristoff and Sven aren't coming because he's an ice harvester, so he has to periodically... harvest... ice. I suppose that's self explanatory. So who are you? Well, I know you're name, but I want to know where you came from. Is that too pushy? I don't want to be pushy. Oh my gosh I'm rambling and you probably think I'm the most annoying person in the world, sorry."

"..." Isabella didn't say anything for a while and kept a blank expression on her face for several seconds.

_'she's worse than Elsa.' _Anna thought until Isabella's lips were pulled slightly up, involuntarily.

Anna saw this and found a smile appearing on her own face. Elsa shared one as well.

They burst out laughing.

"Elsa has the ability to control ice, but you seem to have a power as well!" Isabella said.

Anna gave her a confused look.

"You don't need to breath." She teased.

The smile returned to Anna's face. Elsa addressed her guest.

"Look at you. You just arrived and already you're acting like we've been friends for years."

The amused expression left Isabella's face as she jump from her chair to her knees in front of the queen and princess.

"I beg your pardon. You are absolutely right, your majesty. I have been very disrespectful towards you and your sister."

Anna covered her mouth with her hand as to hold back laughter. Elsa held a guilty look on her face.

"No, that's not what I meant at all. I was taking part in the teasing, that's all. Get on your feet. We are very casual around friends." Elsa said.

"Friends?" Isabella was shocked by how freely Elsa threw that term towards her.

"Of course, Isabella." Anna began. "I mean_, __I_ would be friends with anybody who saved my life. Granted, we have no reason to trust you, but we have no reason to distrust you either."

"Ever the optimist." Elsa muttered.

"All my other friends call me Isabel, or at least they would if I had any other friends." Isabel said.

"That's sad but funny." Anna said, reaching an arm out to the still kneeling Isabel.

Using Anna as support, Isabel brought herself back to her feet. She was about to pull it away when Anna, instead, pulled Isabel towards her and brought her into a hug.

"Careful about how trusting you are, Anna. That might get you into trouble someday." Isabel said, chuckling.

She saw Elsa's gaze shift to the floor and a frown spread across her face, and she felt Anna shift in their hug.

_'It already has.' _

The thought came from all three of them though there was no way for any of them to know it for sure.

"Mind if I ask why it got depressing all of a sudden? I mean apart from the fact that it clearly already has caused trouble. I'm not _that_ clueless."

"What do you know of The Great Freeze and of us?" Elsa questioned their visitor.

"I only know what some guy in a bar told me several months back. About The Great Freeze, I know it was caused by the queen of Arendelle, and about the queen of Arendelle, I know she caused The Great Freeze." Came her answer.

Elsa sighed and turned to her sister.

"Anna, do you want to leave for this?"

"No, I don't." Anna said with her usually happy demeanor missing.

"Do you want to tell it?"

Isabel was slightly shocked at Anna's current state. Elsa seemed to wear an emotionless mask frequently, but Anna, in the few moments Isabel had observed her, was always happy.

"No, I don't." Anna repeated.

"Very well..." Elsa gave her sister one last chance to leave, but when Anna didn't budge, Elsa continued.

"Anna-"

"Was an idiot." Anna interrupted.

"I- I thought I knew what love was and he stabbed me in the back." Anna had tears that seemed to be welling up in her eyes.

"Sure, no one blames me since I was locked up in a castle for thirteen years with no one to talk to and nothing to do but read fairy tales which teach you that true love at first sight is a thing, but-"

"Sorry to interrupt, but you lost me at, 'locked up in a castle for thirteen years.'" She tried to lighten the mood with: "Was there a dragon guarding you?"

Elsa laughed.

"Dragons aren't real."

"Says the one with ice powers!" Isabel fired back.

Anna cracked a smile.

_'Victory.'_

"Elsa, it appears that Isabel does not know anything about our past. Shall I enlighten her?" Anna asked using words in orders that were very strange for Anna.

"Um... sure?"

Suddenly, the old Anna was back. She practically leaped three feet from where she was standing into a chair and slid it until it was right next to Isabel's.

"Alright! So, when Elsa and I were kids, we were super close. We played out in the snow all day every day during the winter. Because we loved winter so much and were royals, we were able to have summer break in the winter time. so while it was sunny, we rarely played together. But shortly after Elsa turned eight, she discovered she had ice powers." Anna's excitement disappeared slightly. "When she showed mom and dad, they said that she needed to learn control and locked her away until she did-"

"Anna?" Elsa covered her mouth, she had not meant to say that. She had been fighting with herself whether to tell Anna the truth about what truly happened, but she _thought_ that she had decided not to...

_'It's just as well.' _She thought to herself. _'If she found out any other way, she would be six times as hurt.'_

Elsa hadn't noticed that four eyes were locked on her until Anna cleared her throat.

"You said my name...?" Anna looked expectantly at Elsa.

"That's... not exactly what happened." Elsa said.

Anna looked hurt.

"But you said-"

"I never said you were right... I just... never said you were wrong." Elsa was struggling. Words seemed to always come effortlessly from Elsa, but here she was unsure.

"What happened then?" There was anger in Anna's voice.

"Well... We didn't play more in the winter because we had it off; we played more in the winter because I could effortlessly create winter in any season." She began.

"All the memories you have of us playing outside in the snow... most of them actually took place in the ballroom... inside the castle." Tears started in her eyes.

"And do you remember the last time we played together?" Elsa almost whimpered out.

"Yeah, that was when we made Olaf. We made Olaf, we went skating around the lake with him, and then we went sledding!" Anna didn't notice the state her sister was in. If she had, Anna would have been crying along with Elsa, wrapping her arms tightly around her sister.

"What do you remember after that?" Elsa asked.

"We put all sorts of piles of snow, towering high above us on the ice, and I started climbing them. Then I slipped off and fell on my head. Then I woke up in bead with you all standing over me." Anna then remembered what had started Elsa's previous remarks. "...Why...?"

"Well, everything you just said happened in the ballroom, but with one big exception." Elsa said.

"What?"

"I slipped and fell, and when I did, I accidentally struck your head with my ice magic." Elsa said.

"And then-" There was a lot of interrupting going on this day.

"And then mom and dad took me to the trolls where they got the magic out of my head and wiped my memory?" Anna checked her conclusion by Elsa.

"Yes, how did you...?"

"After you froze my heart," That felt almost like a physical blow to Elsa. Anna wasn't accusing Elsa of anything, and she knew that, but knowing you've hurt someone you love is always painful.

"Kristoff said he would take me to the trolls, and that he knew they would fix it because he'd seen them do it before. Then, when I was over at his house, he told me about his life before the trolls took him in. We were were interrupted by Kai before he could finish his story, but he said that nothing really interesting happened to him until our visit with the trolls."

"I see. Did he say anything else?" Elsa asked her.

"He said he stole from our ships. I told him he would have to pay us back."

"He's dating you, isn't he?" Elsa teased.

Anna hit her shoulder.

"I bet he said the same thing, didn't he?" Elsa questioned, but instead of answering, Anna asked her own question.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I was afraid you would get mad at me... which you kinda did."

"Elsa, I was mad because you didn't tell me sooner. Open doors. We agreed to open doors both literally and figuratively."

"Right, so now that we're done with the emotional drama, how about you catch me up to speed on everything?" Isabel spoke for the first time in several minutes.

And so they did.

* * *

**HOLY MONKEYS IN A BABY-BASKET THIS WAS A LONG CHAPTER... for me. SO! Some of you hopefully noticed my slight reformatting of my stories, mainly the "What Has Gone Before" chapters and the new summary of this story. How do you like the changes? Good? Bad? Screw you, I don't share my opinions with people on the internet? Any of those answers is okay. Thanks to all those who have followed me or my stories; thanks to all those who have favorited my stories; and thanks to all those who have reviewed my stories. All of you are awesome. As well as those who have only read them.  
**


	18. Alternate Arrangements

**I skipped the part where Anna and Elsa are explaining the events of Frozen. I could write that if you wanted, I swear I would try to make it interesting, but it doesn't seem particularly necessary.**

**P.S. I think I'm going to be retiring the "Kristoff proposing to Anna" plot point until two stories from now. As in it's gone from this story; won't be present in my next one; and, provided I write one after that, it will be explored in _that_ story. Sorry to disappoint.**

* * *

When Elsa and Anna had finished their tale, Isabel reclined against the back of her chair.

She hadn't remembered being on the edge of her seat, but there she was.

"Wow... that was... you guys are _lucky_." She finally decided on.

They giggled.

"Yeah, a bit." What Elsa had just said was an understatement.

"And you made... living snowpeople?" Isabel asked.

"She did!" Anna spoke for the first time since sharing how she decked Hans in the schnoz.

"Can I meet them?" Isabel's face lit up with interest in meeting the impossible creations.

"They're up in the ice palace."

Isabel stared blankly, her excitement now mixed with silent confusion.

"Did we forget to tell her about the ice palace?!" Anna cried.

"It seems we did." Elsa chuckled out.

"When I fled the kingdom, I crafted a castle made entirely out of ice."

"But you were only there a few days! How long did it take you? Is it finished?" Isabel was struck with wonder, and the questions flooded out of her mouth.

"Um... it is finished. Um... two minutes?"

Isabel simply stared at Elsa and blinked... and blinked again... and just... kept blinking. One might have thought the queen froze her with her ice powers.

Anna and Elsa just stared at Isabel for a while. It was Anna who broke the silence as she whispered to her sister.

"I think you broke her."

"You... made... a full-fledged _castle_ in... two minutes." Nothing about Isabel moved but her lips.

"Give or take a few seconds." Elsa responded, nonchalantly.

"Not helping."

They sat in silence for a good, long while. Anna broke the silence again.

"Wow, it's a good thing we skipped over that the first time. She wouldn't have been able to pay any attention for the remainder of the story, and that happened towards the beginning!"

"I mean... you said Hans shot the chandelier, but... I assumed you had another house up there or something... how could I have guessed you _made one_?"

"Alright... so that's about enough about us." Anna began. "Tell us abut you."

Isabel tensed.

"What was your childhood like?" Anna asked.

"Average." Isabel replied.

"I don't really know what 'average' is." Anna said with a smile.

"I had a family, and I was a child."

Anna gave an accusing glance to Isabel while she spoke to Elsa.

"What do you know, Elsa? It looks we had an 'average' childhood after all."

"I just... don't really like the past, okay?"

"No, _I_ don't like the past," Anna seemed quite annoyed. "_You_ seem to be afraid of it which is never helpful." Anna passed a glance to Elsa, who gave her a sad smile.

"I'm not afraid of it." Isabel's anger was growing.

"Then-" Anna was interrupted by a hand on her shoulder.

Anna's head darted to her sister's

"Anna, she doesn't want to say. She's not comfortable yet, and pushing will only make her less so." Elsa said calmly.

"But we just spilled out our entire lives!"

"We're royals. We don't get the same privacy that some others enjoy. Plus, thirteen years of our lives can be summed up in a sentence, I'm sure her life would take far longer do explain."

"No it wouldn't." Anna, while still annoyed moved to tease the girl to her left. "She can sum her life up in one word."

Elsa gave both Anna and Isabella a confused look.

"And that word is..." Anna waved her hand toward Isabel. She caught on.

"Average." It was said with a smile.

"Alright." Anna clapped her hands together. "You've already seen your room, but someone should show you the rest of the castle, and while Elsa is performing her duties as queen, I have nothing to do. Let's go Isabel."

"Wait, _my room_? As in _staying in the castle_?" Isabel couldn't quite believe they were so trusting without knowing a thing about her.

"Well, yeah. Would you prefer to sleep outside with the wolves?" Anna joked.

"Quite frankly, yes."

"Oh." Anna was slightly shocked.

She glanced at Elsa.

"I refuse to allow you to sleep in the wilderness. However, we can make other arrangements, so that you do not need to sleep in the castle." Elsa replied, putting on her regal face.

"I don't have money to live anywhere but the wilderness, Elsa." Isabel replied.

"_I_ do." Elsa smiled.

"No, I would never ask you to pay."

"Neither would they." There was truth in Anna's joke, and everyone present knew it.

* * *

"Of course we have got some extra rooms. It's fall now, so not many people wantin' to come visit Arendelle." The innkeeper was short, gruff, and slightly heavy.

"Of course, even if they were full, I'd kick em out to make room for the queen's guest." The man chuckled.

"I wouldn't ask you to do that." Elsa replied, sad if not slightly horrified that the man would so easily throw out his customers for her.

"Which is why it's a good thing I'm willin' to, 'cause otherwise I would be inconveniencin' the queen, and we can't have that now can we?"

"I-"

"Elsa, it's fine. It's all hypothetical at this point. Besides, if it ever does come to that, you're the queen, order him not to." Anna said chuckling.

The innkeeper joined in with his own hearty laugh.

A few minutes later and the group was onto the upper floor, being shown the room in which Isabel would remain for the near future. At least until they got her comfortable with being in the castle.

The room was small. Or at least it seemed small. Elsa and Anna were both used to huge rooms to reside in, and Isabel was used to the entire outdoors as her room.

There was a single person bed against the middle of a wall with a small table on either side of it. Each table had a single drawer underneath the surface, and a small candle sitting on top of it. There was a chest at the foot of the bed for any belongings, and there was a single window to let natural light in during the day.

"It's no castle, but if what you told me is correct, it's precisely that that's what makes it desirable." He said.

"Is it alright with you, Isabel?" Anna asked.

Isabel shifted her eyes from each of the four pieces of furniture in the room back to Anna. Then they flashed to Elsa before her mouth opened.

"This will be fine." Isabel said nothing for a short time, before she added, "Thank you."

"Yay!" Anna squealed. "Now that we have this figured out, I can show you all the cool places in the castle."

Anna grabbed Isabel's wrist and pulled her out the door; through the halls; down the stairs; the the other door; through the streets; and to the castle. Saying, "Come on, come on, come on, come on," the whole way. It brought Elsa back to the night in the ballroom.

The innkeeper was leaving, having already given the key to the room to Isabel before they came up.

"Wait!" Elsa said grabbing his attention once again. "You never said how much the room was."

"That's 'cause there is no price." He gave the queen a smile. It looked slightly odd on him, but Elsa shrugged it off.

"I... um... order you to make me pay..." Elsa struggled at that, she generally didn't "order" anything. She was generally as humble as could be and was surprisingly accepting of no's, so it shouldn't have been a surprise that she felt awkward.

"If it's treason to disobey a queens order that she pay for something," the innkeeper put his hands together and held them out towards Elsa, "then lock me up now and hang me later."

Elsa sighed.

The rest of the day was very boring. Anna ran all throughout the castle showing her favorite places to Isabel with her hardly able to keep up with Anna.

They eventually had took a break for lunch, but as soon as they were done, Anna dragged Isabel back to their tour. Even though Isabel had already seen many of the halls they ran through to get to the ones they hadn't, they all seemed new. She was never going to figure out her way around the castle.

Once they were done there, however, they moved on to a tour over all of Arendelle. They took a break for supper and continued until dark.

The group, now including Elsa went back to the inn. They talked about nothing in particular until it was time for them to leave. Isabel climbed into bed and Elsa moved to extinguish the candle, but Isabella stopped her.

"I like the light. I also like fire. It... comforts me." She said.

Elsa raised an eyebrow.

"Alright..."

* * *

**HEY! did you like this chapter? You liked it, didn't you, Squidward? I have some good news, or bad news depending on how you like this story. We are nearing it's end. we are at least 1/2 of the way done. Although, at most, we are about 3/4 of the way done. I am going to have about a six-month time jump coming soon, and I was hoping to fill it with a few short stories. Any suggestions as to what kind of situations I could put them in? I have, at the very most, five chapters I could put in this time jump, but with help I might be able to stretch this into over 40 chapters! WHO'S WITH ME?!**


	19. A Visit with the Trolls

**Hello. This is the first chapter that takes place in the six month time gap between my last chapter and once I resume the story.  
**

**Remember, this is filler content that probably has no relevance to the story. I just want to make this story a bit longer. Like... 40 chapters. but that probably won't happen.**

* * *

Elsa awoke to her sister knocking feverishly at her door.

"Elsa?"

Three more knocks.

"Elsa?"

And three more.

"Elsa?"

"Anna, go back to sleep." she said groggily.

"I just _can't_. I've... been up all night thinking about the trolls." Anna said to her.

Elsa's eyes opened fully, no longer forced closed by want of sleep, rather forced open by shock.

"What about the trolls, Anna?" Elsa said even though she thought she already knew.

"Well... they took my memories away..." Anna seemed to want that to hang in the air for a while. Then she voiced her unspoken question.

"Do you think they could give them back?"

"I... I don't know, Anna. Do you truly want them back?"

"How can you even ask that, Elsa? I've just learned that _all_ of the good memories I have of my childhood aren't even real. Sure. I can _know_ what truly happened, but I want to _remember_ what happened. I want to remember all the beauty and wonder I experienced full force, Elsa, not perverted by someone else's telling." It seemed as though Anna might be near to tears.

"Anna, I- We can't now. Perhaps in the morning." Elsa said as she rolled over and closed her eyes.

"No. Right now, Elsa." Elsa felt a hand grab her wrist and began pulling her out of bed.

_'when did she get inside?'_

"Anna, there's no one to prepare our horses." It was a sad excuse, Elsa knew, but Anna had already shrugged off the fact that it was clearly too early in the day to be starting an adventure.

"We don't need horses." Anna simply left it at that.

"Anna, one does not simply walk-" Elsa stopped as she realized what Anna must have been referring to.

"Anna, tell me you didn't..."

Elsa's unfinished sentence became irrelevant when they burst through the castle doors to find Kristoff and Sven along with his sled all packed and prepared.

"Good morning, my queen." Kristoff bowed. "I see she actually did manage to get you up." He laughed.

"She left her door unlocked." Anna smiled.

"And I might never do that again if you continue to barge in without permission."

"Open doors. You promised."

They climbed into the sled.

"TO THE INN!" Anna cried.

Elsa shushed her.

"Be quiet! You'll wake the whole kingdom." Elsa whispered harshly.

"Sorry." Anna's whisper was so quiet that no one but Elsa could have heard

"Besides," Elsa started. "We are not disturbing Isabel."

"Why not?"

"Why doesn't Elsa think it's a good idea to ask someone who barely knows you to go into the mountains at two in the morning? Maybe because the two people who love you the most are fairly ticked at you right now so just imagine how she would feel." Kristoff said.

"...Ok." Anna crossed her arms as Kristoff whipped the reins to command Sven forward.

In a few short hours, they were nearing the trolls place of residence. The sun was just barely shedding light over the mountains.

Kristoff eased the sled to a halt. The group stepped out of the sled and began to follow Kristoff toward the trolls.

"They can be a little inappropriate." Kristoff warned Elsa as they neared the trolls.

Anna rolled her eyes as she remembered that those were the exact words he used before introducing her to the trolls the first time.

"And loud, very loud." He said.

"They're also stubborn at times and-"

"Kristoff, I've met them before." Elsa interrupted.

"I was there when you met them. They're nothing like that."

Kristoff ran ahead to the center of a gathering of rocks. Elsa and Anna stood several yards back.

Eventually, the rocks began to roll quickly past the sisters and to Kristoff.

"Oh look at you!" Bulda cried.

"You've grown so big."

"I look the same as when I was last here." Kristoff sounded impatient. Probably because he was on little-to-no sleep.

Cliff inched toward Bulda, and he whispered something into her ear.

Bulda's eyes shot to Anna, completely skipping over Elsa.

"Anna's back!" She yelled.

All of the trolls ran after Anna. All but Cliff, who seemed to be trying to regain his wife's, or anyone's, attention.

"Look at you!" A trolled cried.

"Look at me." Anna said, unsure of what to do.

"Still so beautiful." Another said.

"Thanks, but-"

"When's the wedding?"

"I don't know. I want-"

"Will we be invited?"

"Of course, but we're not-"

"Oh, and you seem to be filling out. That's good."

"Wait, what?!"

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone turned their attention to the source of the noise: Cliff.

"Bulda, you didn't catch all of what I was trying to say." He said calmly.

"Alright, what was the rest?"

"Look, my dear, over there." He pointed directly at Elsa.

Elsa shied away, taking a single step back.

"Kristoff!" Bulda got her "son's" attention.

He gave a glance toward his "mother."

"And we thought your thing with the _reindeer_ was a little outside of natures laws."

"Wait! What are you suggesting?" Kristoff was _very_ worried.

The trolls now flocked to Elsa and studied every inch of her.

Anna walked over to her boyfriend, laughing.

"Anna, I don't think you get it."

"What's there not to get?" Anna continued her laughter.

"Remember when I first introduced you to my family?" Kristoff asked her.

The laughter quickly died down.

"They don't!" Anna stated in disbelief.

"I'm afraid they do."

* * *

Trolls were jumping all over Elsa. No place seemed to be safe. No, there weren't any under her dress _now_, but a few started to venture there before another troll had the decency to stop them. Suffice to say, Elsa felt violated. They lifted her arms, looking at them with the intensity of a hawk. Up towards her face, they scrutinized her ears; eyes; eyebrows; neck; chin; cheeks; nose; nostrils, that was the most disturbing; mouth; tongue; teeth; and hair.

"Where does Kristoff find these beauties?"

"Wait I think you're misunderstanding the situation." Elsa said between individual inspections.

"I guess Kristoff likes girls with freckles." One troll said, noticing the light dusting of them on her face.

"I thought he liked red hair." Another said.

"Well, she doesn't have red hair, so that can't be it. Plus, the only things these two girls have in common are the freckles so that's gotta be it."

"Um... that's not even close to what's happening here. I mean, Anna and I are _sisters!_" Elsa exclaimed, disgusted at what the trolls seemed to be proposing.

"There's another thing they have in common: Parents!"

"I knew there had to be something connecting these two besides _freckles_."

* * *

A troll made it's way to Kristoff.

"So you managed to get a girl; get another; make peace between them; and they're _sisters_? You are a god."

"No, she's not my girl! It's just Anna!" Kristoff exclaimed.

"She hasn't denied it."

"You probably haven't been paying attention!"

"Do you both go out with him at the same time?" The troll asked Anna, who looked disgusted. Then, he whispered to Kristoff: "I got your back, man. She'll be so curious about it that she'll do it eventually, maybe some night, too."

Kristoff looked at the troll as he backed off, and spoke to both present.

"They might even do it without you."

"I'm sorry?!" Anna chocked out, only connecting it to dating since she didn't hear the whisper.

"We're here for some important business and you're here... _shipping Elsanna_!" Kristoff shouted.

"What's 'Elsanna?'" Anna asked.

"A combination of yours and Elsa's names."

"And you just made this up?"

"...yes?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Pabbie disrupted the "party."

"I learned a new word! it's... kind of a disturbing word, but a new one nonetheless." Anna said.

"I'm never gonna live that down, am I?"

"Nope." She kissed him on the cheek.

Pabbie looked across to Elsa and bowed.

"Your majesty."

"She's royalty too?" The troll who had suggested... _strange_ things to Kristoff asked.

"She's Anna's sister!"

"What, might I ask, brings you here?" Pabbie asked Elsa.

"It's Anna... she wants her memories."

Pabbie waddled over to Anna and asked her himself.

"Is this the case, do you truly want your memories back?"

"Yes."

"Which ones?"

Anna gave the grand elder of the trolls a confused look.

"The fact that you do not know what I speak of tells me that you do not desire them returned."

"_No._ Give them to me, I _want _to remember."

"Very well."

Pabbie had Anna lie down into his arms.

"Alright, my dear, close your eyes." He told her.

After Anna had closed her eyes, the grand elder struck her on the head with a rock.

She fell unconscious.

"Why did you do that?" Kristoff demanded.

"One must be unconscious when I mess with their memories. Otherwise, it might cause damage."

"No, I meant 'Why did you have to hit her with a rock?' You _are_ a rock." Kristoff rephrased his question.

Pabbie gave him a weak smile before turning to Anna.

Several pictures were suspending in shining dust as Pabbie undid the changes he had made.

Soon, Anna woke up. She only uttered a single sentence when she did, and until they got back to the castle had only spoken that one time with that one sentence.

"I hate them."


	20. When They Returned

The minute they got back to the castle, Anna ran from the sled and through it's gates.

Elsa had a solemn look on her face as Kristoff walked up to her, trying to make light of the situation

"Well. I guess she no longer approves of my family, huh?"

Elsa let loose a heavy sigh.

"Kristoff, it's not your family she hates."

"But she said-"

"She wasn't talking about the trolls. She was talking about... well, the former king and queen of Arendelle. And me. Who knows at this point?" Elsa interrupted him.

"How can you be sure?" He asked her.

"Because I know exactly what she remembers."

* * *

Isabel received word that the queen and princess had returned, so she went to join them in... well, whatever. She didn't really know what "normal" people did.

_'And I guess I still don't considering the queen's _unique_ situation.'_ Isabel thought to herself as she remembered Elsa's ice magic.

She slowly walked through the gates of the castle walls before continuing to the main entrance. She knocked lightly on the door. She found it odd that in the time since they'd been back, Neither Elsa nor Anna had attempted to retrieve her. She didn't particularly think Elsa would, but Anna seemed like the kind of person would be willing to kick her door down to hang out.

The castle doors slowly opened. There was a single servant managing each individual door. They nodded toward her.

"Lady Isabella."

_'Lady?'_

"Uh, I'm sorry. I don't know your names."

"Oh, I'm Henry." The younger-looking one said.

The older one lightly smacked him on the side of his head.

"We're servants, boy. Our names do not matter."

Isabel raised and eyebrow.

"Did Elsa tell you that?"

"Of course not, have you met her?" He chuckled lightly.

"But. Just because we have a queen who would like to treat us like kings, it only makes it all the more important that we know our true place."

The younger, Henry, cut in.

"Kings who have to do what she says." He qualified.

The elder, still nameless, laughed,

"The woman always gets her way. I guarantee that once the queen finds a man of her own, she'll still have almost complete rule over Arendelle."

"Speaking of Elsa," Isabel finally found her way back into the conversation. "Where is she?"

Henry spoke.

"I believe she's in the throne room."

"Thank you, Henry." She said as she ran off towards Elsa.

After a few minutes wandering aimlessly through the castle, she burst through the doors of the throne room to find Elsa pacing back and forth, patches of frost forming perfectly in the shape of Elsa's shoes, showing exactly where she had been walking the past few minutes.

"Anna?" Isabel asked the queen.

Elsa looked towards Isabel and gave her a puzzled look.

"Elsa." She replied.

Isabel let loose a soft chuckle.

"No, I was asking what was bothering you. Is it Anna?"

Elsa sighed, confirming Isabel's suspicions.

"How could you tell?"

"You, my queen, are the perfect image of, 'calm, cool, and collected' With the single exception of anything having to do with Anna."

"Quite the exception." Elsa said with a dry chuckle.

"So what happened?"

"Remember yesterday when I told both you and Anna about what really happened when we were little?" A nod from Isabel told Elsa she did, so Elsa continued. "Well, in the night she collected Kristoff and I to visit the trolls, so we could get her memory back. She... remembered things that were likely best left forgotten. Would you be able to talk to her? I'm afraid she'd much too angry at me to listen to anything I say."

"I would, but it would help if I knew what exactly was 'best left forgotten.'"

Elsa sighed once more and began to tell the tale.

* * *

Anna was switching between fierce anger and uncontrollable weeping, sometimes both. She shook herself as she felt sleep approaching. One of the things Pabbie had said before restoring her memory was that with the new information available for the mind to explore, the subconscious would likely be drawn to the new memories, and that she shouldn't be surprised if they consistently infiltrated her dreams for a while. She didn't want to dream about _that._

She tried to focus on happy things, the things she loved.

Her love for her sister. _Who had the perfect opportunity to tell her the truth but didn't._

Her love for her boyfriend. _Who hadn't once asked what was bothering her on the several hour trip back to Arendelle._

Her love for her parents. _Who had betrayed her and Elsa in far worse way than she had initially thought or wished to.__  
_

Her love for Olaf. Who, despite being the only one who hadn't hurt her or Elsa, _wasn't here._

She, once again, began crying into her pillow until, despite her best efforts, she fell asleep.

Anna saw several flashes of memory before her. Fun, happy memories of her and her sister playing all in rapid succession until

* * *

_Anna's eyes fluttered open. Everything around her was dark. Eventually, though, her eyes adjusted to the darkness. and she could see that she was in her room. She looked up from under the blankets to see a faint light coming from the window, and she saw her big sister, Elsa, sleeping in her bed not fifteen feet from Anna's own. Anna slid out of bed and looked through the windows to see the northern lights shining brightly in the sky. Her eyes widened, and the corners of her lips shot up into a grin._

_"Elsa. Psst." Her sister was unresponsive, so Anna did what any sensible person would do. Anna climbed on top of her._

_"Elsa!" Anna began shaking her sister in an attempt to rouse her. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up!"_

_"Anna," Elsa groaned out sleepily. Success! "Go back to sleep." Sort of..._

_Anna flopped on top of her sister flipping herself so that she was lying on her back._

_"I just can't." Anna declared. "The sky's awake," She brought her right hand to her forehead dramatically even though not even Elsa could see her. "So I'm awake," She then lowered her right hand from her face and raised her left one. "So we have to _play_." She said in despair as she brought both of her arms out to either side of her._

_"Go play by yourself." Elsa said as she pushed Anna off of her body, off of her bed, and onto the floor._

_So, Elsa was going to be stubborn. Anna wracked her brain so as to think of something to coax her sister out of bed. Then it struck her. A mischievous smile appeared on Anna's face. She jumped back into bed with her sister; crawled back on top of her slumbering body; forced one of her eyes open with her hand; and spoke into her ear._

_"Do you want to build a snowmaaaaan?" She took her hand away from her sister's face to see if her words had the desired effect. They did._

_Elsa's eyes slowly opened up, and a smile spread across her face. _

_Anna won. Again. _

_She grabbed her sister's hand and pulled her out of bed. Elsa was barely even able to convince Anna that she needed shoes. Anna was that excited._

_They bolted down the stairs. Anna was giggling while loudly commanding Elsa to keep up with her, but Elsa, knowing that there would never be a speed fast enough for her sister, simply tried to quiet her._

_"Come on."_

_"Shhh."_

_"Come on."_

_"Shhh."_

_"Come on."_

_"Shhh."_

_"C- come on!"_

_They burst through the ballroom doors. The massive room was completely empty as there weren't any sorts of celebrations planned. Good thing too since they now had the ballroom to themselves. Anna was bouncing up and down, commanding Elsa to "Do the magic!"  
_

_Elsa brought her hands together and a bright light swirled between them, forming into a ball of blue._

_"Ready?" She asked while beaming a smile towards her sister._

_A broad grin had formed across Anna's face as she nodded her head._

_Elsa willed the ball to lift off toward the ceiling. As soon as it neared the top, it exploded, sending a flurry of snow falling down to the ballroom floor._

_Anna was doing a little dance through the falling snowflakes._

_"This is amazing!" She yelled into the emptiness of the ballroom._

_Elsa stooped down to look her slightly shorter sister directly in the eye._

_"Watch this!" Elsa stomped her foot on the ground causing a layer of ice to form over the entirety of the ballroom floor. As it did, Anna began sliding backwards._

_The two sisters began to play in the snow: ice skating; they built a snowman; skated on the ice with the snowman; and went sledding._

_Elsa designed a hill such that when they flew off of it, Anna would land onto another one. She sunk into the snow and after a few seconds, jumped out and commanded Elsa so catch her as she jumped forward. Elsa did. Anna continued. Too fast._

_"Wait! slow down!" Elsa warned her sister. Anna didn't listen._

_Elsa slipped on the ice, falling to her behind. She looked back up to her sister just in time to see Anna jump off the column of snow into open air._

_"Anna!" Elsa instinctively held her hand out to her sister, but she accidentally shot a blast of ice from her hand. Straight at Anna._

_As Anna was flying through the air, she saw a streak of blue flow toward her; felt intense cold against her face; and saw nothing but black for a really long while._

_Finally Anna saw a ten year-old version of herself stand outside Elsa's door._

Anna's conscious mind began screaming.

'No. Not this.'

She willed her mind to think of anything else.

The current, good times with her sister.

It didn't work.

She tried to think of the previous memory she'd had returned to her, but that didn't work either. She couldn't close her eyes. she couldn't turn her head. She was forced to relive the time that she had been wronged the most.

**CLIFFHANGERS! Sorry, I like cliffhangers. I had originally intended to imply that Anna _was_ pissed at the trolls; have her be out of the story for a while; develop a relationship between Elsa and Isabel; and _then_ reveal that it was actually her own family Anna was pissed at, but I decided to do this instead. I also apologize for teasing this untold story of Anna and Elsa's childhood THREE TIMES in a single chapter and still refusing to show it. I hope you'll forgive me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I also hope you don't hate me. P.S. I thought this was going to be maybe three chapters... It seems like it's gonna be five. But then I'll change focus to some other subject.**


	21. A Bond Reformed

_About 9 years ago..._

Anna stood in front of one of the many ever-closed doors of the castle. There were far too many doors that remained closed, all but one of them leading outside the castle. This was that one. The door that led to Elsa's room. Anna knocked five times in her usual pattern. After a few seconds of silence, she leaned back against the door and slid downward into a sitting position.

"Hey, Elsa." Anna said solemnly.

"I'm guessing by the fact that I'm talking to you rather than just knocking; asking you to come out; and leaving, that you know what day it."

"I'm 10 now. Happy birthday to me, I guess."

* * *

Elsa sat on the chair; leaning onto her desk; and trying as hard as she could to keep her sobs silent.

"Happy birthday, Anna." She whispered to herself through the tears.

* * *

"I got some cool things for my birthday." Anna continued.

"Well, not really. They _would_ be cool, but they're the kinds of things that are best played with other people. So that part kind of spoiled them."

"I was hoping to get a card from you. I guess that was too high of a hope."

* * *

Elsa's tears had began to freeze on her face as a constant reminder that, besides being a monster for abandoning her sister and best friend, she was a monster with powers that would hurt people.

* * *

"Mom and dad say you're studying to be queen, but that doesn't quite make sense to me. You studied before you locked yourself away, why do you have to be locked away now?"

"The alternative that you hate me makes more sense. If that's the case, I'm sorry that I'm bothering you. I'm sure you don't want to hear from me."

"You know, I haven't gotten a birthday present since you were locked away. I thought maybe I could ask for just one, and then I would never ask you to come out or talk to me again, I promise."

* * *

Elsa sighed. Anna was going to ask her to come out, to play with her just for this one day, this one special day, and Elsa would have to decline.

Her face wore a mask of frozen tears.

* * *

"I... I want an answer."

* * *

_'What?'_

* * *

"I want to know why. Why you shut me out. Please answer. And don't lie."

* * *

_'That's all she wanted? An answer? An easy explanation for why I've put my sister through all these hardsh__ips over her last five birthdays?'_

'_I'm not supposed to tell anyone about her powers.'_

_'I don't have to. I could just say that I was cursed. I was a monster. A monster who would hurt people. Anna would understand. Anna would leave me, understanding what had to be done to protect everyone! That would make it easier for everyone. I wouldn't have to exercise the self-control of keeping Anna out; Anna wouldn't go around thinking everyone in her life hated her; and her parents wouldn't have to lie to Anna anymore or keep her away from me because she would do that herself, knowing it was a necessary sacrifice for the good of everything!'_

_'It's so easy, it's so simple, and it will fix everything.'_

* * *

Anna heard what she hadn't heard for a very long time: Words from her sister that weren't telling her to leave.

"Anna... I'm cursed. I'm a monster. I'll hurt people. I'm sorry."

There was a short pause.

"Happy birthday."

Elsa had spoken! Not, "Go away" or, "I can't" or anything like that!

"I love you, Anna."

If Anna wasn't already sitting she would have fallen to the ground.

* * *

Elsa thought she heard footsteps running away from the door. She smiled sadly. The tables had turned. Instead of Anna thinking Elsa hated her. Anna hated Elsa. It was sad, but necessary. Elsa could handle being hated far better than Anna could, or so she thought.

_'I'm stronger than she is. I need to protect my little sister in any way that I can, including my imprisonment.'_

* * *

Anna was running through the halls towards her parents room. Maybe she'd finally get attention from them too. Since Elsa had gone into her room, never to come out, it seemed that her parents did the same, only leaving when they had meetings or to go to Elsa.

_'Why am I not allowed to do that?'_

Anna thought to herself as she skidded to a stop.

Then Anna realized something.

It wasn't Elsa who had been shut off from the family. It was _her_.

* * *

Anna began stomping back to her sister's room.

Elsa heard steps coming back... angry steps. Anna had told their parents? No, the steps were to light. A voice came through the door, a very sad voice.

"I said, 'don't lie,' Elsa."

"I didn't." Elsa said, now not caring if her sister heard her tears.

"Don't give me that! I figured it out. You seem like the imprisoned one, but you're not. It's me. You, mom, and dad have all shut me out. You still talk and hang out with each other. You did imprison me, you just didn't want it to seem like imprisonment. I mean, who could feel caged when they have an entire castle to themselves? But can I leave? No. Can I hang out with anyone? _No_, not even my own family."

Elsa hadn't realized the pain she'd put Anna through. Anna was far more scarred now than when Elsa struck her, but at least she was alive, right? Elsa shook her head. She was emotionally dead or dying. Elsa looked around. her room was entirely frozen over.

"I'll prove it." Elsa's want of her sister's happiness betrayed her need for secrecy.

_'Did I really just say that?'_

Elsa slowly walked over to the door, and gently placed her bare hand against it. It froze instantaneously.

Elsa heard her sister gasp.

_'Good, a step in the right direction. Better to be afraid of her than think she's hated.'_

"Elsa..." She heard Anna whisper.

_'Here they come, the cries of fear.'_

"That's so beautiful!"

_'What? She... thinks it's beautiful? She _likes _it?'_

_'Of course she likes it. She loved it before the accident. Why would I expect any different now?'_

"No, Anna, it's dangerous. I'll hurt people."

"Never."

"I've already hurt you."

"...Elsa, I just found out about this today."

"Actually, you've known about your whole life. I accidentally struck you with my magic, and dad took you to the trolls to wipe your memory and remove the magic."

"Trolls don't exist."

"You said to the girl who just _froze the door to her_ _room_." Elsa sighed. "Either way, Anna, I can't hurt you again."

"You're right." Anna confirmed her sisters words. "You can't, so let me in."

"Anna, look, I-"

"Elsa. I will make you a deal. Well, another one. I am going to try the door. If you truly, wholeheartedly don't want to see me, lock the door. I'll try the knob; It won't open; and I'll be on my way, fulfilling my end of our first deal. If there is some part of you that wants to see me, unlock the door. I'll come in; give you the biggest hug of your life; and if I freeze to death, I'll die during the happiest moment of mine."

Elsa grabbed the key to her door and placed in the keyhole. She held her hand over the key, but she couldn't bring herself to actually lock the door.

After about a minute, the doorknob was disturbed. It slowly rotated and Anna cracked the door open.

Elsa made eye contact with her sister for the first time in over five years.

Anna was absolutely stunned by her sister. Elsa was gorgeous even while still a child of thirteen years.

Elsa thought the same thing about Anna.

Anna bolted through the door, and brought Elsa into a firm, loving hug. Tears ran through Anna's closed eyes; from her face; and onto Elsa's dress as they remained in their embrace for several minutes. Elsa kept her eyes closed as well, though no tears escaped her.

When they finally ended their long-awaited show of affection for one another, Elsa opened her eyes and looked in wonder at the room around her, now completely thawed. The door was thawed as well.

"How did..." Elsa was at a loss for words, so Anna didn't use any. She simply made up for lost time and wrapped her arms around her sister once more.

They separated again and talked for quite a while.

Well, they also played a bit with Elsa's powers. She seemed to be in complete control of them.

"This is great! It means that I can come out! I can't wait to tell dad- Dad." An unsettled look crossed Elsa's face. She passed a quick glance to the clock on the wall, then she turned back to her sister.

"You have to go, Anna. Dad will be here soon, and if he finds you here-"

"If dad finds me here we can tell him you have control. We can tell him _together._"

"Or he can take you back to the trolls and have your memory wiped again."

"He would never do that."

"I'm not so sure, Anna. And that scares me. Please, just for me, leave and don't tell mom or dad you were here."

"But what happens after that?" Anna was scared too. Scared that her sister would shut the door once more, never to open for her for another five years at least.

"I promise. I _swear_. That I will keep the door open to you, Anna. I'll let you back in, but for now, leave. Please."

Elsa pushed Anna out the door and latched it behind her.

Elsa was nervous that her father might discover that she had broken their agreement, and that he would force Anna away from her again. She was going to do everything in her power to prevent that. It wasn't going to happen again. Elsa looked down to the ground and noticed that she had made footprints out of frost and ice in her fear, which only made her fear stronger, until she felt arms around her. The arms retreated and Elsa once again saw her sister. They hugged again and Anna whispered into her ear.

"Don't be afraid."

They parted and Anna went back through the door, willingly this time, but before Elsa could shut it Anna said three more words to her sister.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Anna. See you soon." And the door latched once more.

Anna leaned back against the door and slid downward into a sitting position once more, hardly believing what had just happened.

* * *

**WOO! I don't know about you, but I LOVE this if I do say so myself... and it only gets better from here... or, is that the opposite? I don't know. Actually, I do, but I don't want to tell you just yet. :P **

**By the way, any suggestions for minor plot points? I would consider them as I want to have this story be twice as long (chapter wise, it's already over twice as long word count wise.) as "A Queen's Nightmares." I can't promise I would do any, but I will promise to, at the very least, write them all down and consider placing them into my story.  
**

**Have a great day... or night... or morning... or evening... or dusk... or dawn... or twilight... or... midnight... or... noon... or afternoon... I can't think of anymore. Thanks for suffering through my ramblings on here even thought they don't contain ANY useful information. See you in the next chapter. Actually I won't. BYE!**


	22. Suspicions Aroused

"Anna." She heard the voice of her father from down the hall. She turned her head to look him in the eye.

"You must stop doing this, Anna. You know Elsa has to study politics and econimics so she can become Arendelle's queen in the future, and you are distracting her from that."

That made Anna's blood boil, so much so that she thought her blood might melt her skin off of her body. Sure, she had _suspected_ that her father had been lying to her for all these years, but now she _knew._

_'He did it to protect you.' _She heard what she thought was a voice of reason inside her head. She shoved it aside. Anna was not an, "ends justify the means" kind of person, and her father had just flat-out _lied_ to her.

"Do you understand me, Anna?" She had faintly heard him speaking moments before, but could not remember what exactly he had said.

"Yes." She lied, still have no clue what he'd said past his first lie. The rest was just probably more of them.

Her father brought her into a hug. It felt like acid against her bare flesh. This man had hurt both her and her sister, and it was physically painful to pretend everything was okay. Maybe at first it was for him to, but he had most certainly gotten used to it.

The thought of getting _used _to the kind of deception that her and her father were both pulling off flawlessly was unsettling to Anna, but that was the only hint she gave that anything was unusual, and he didn't seem to pick up on her slight discomfort.

"Alright, Anna. run along now. I need to give Elsa the test on what she's learned today." Anna heard him and spun on her heel. She rolled her eyes as soon as she had her back to the king and ran from the door to Elsa's room and around the first corner she could find. When she heard the door close behind her father, she quietly sneaked back to the door and put her ear against it to listen in on what exactly was happening behind the door all these years. It sure as heck wasn't some _test_.

"Alright, Elsa. Give me a brief history of Weselton."

_'Wait what?' _Anna thought with a twinge of guilt.

Inside the door, Elsa noticed a small shadow coming through the slit between it and the floor. _'Anna.'__  
_

"Dad... I actually have good news for you, so if we could skip this part, I would wish to tell you." Elsa told him.

"I suspect it has something to do with the curse?"

"It does."

Outside the door, Anna's eyes widened. Even that part was a lie. They started with what seemed like school to bore her into leaving in case she ever got the idea to listen in. Anna had to give them credit though, if if hadn't been for Elsa's interrupting of it, the ruse would have worked.

"Very well, Elsa. Spit it out."

"I've learned to control it."

The kings eyes widened and his lips betrayed him and forced his regal appearance to instead bare a smile.

Elsa brought her hands together and formed several glowing snowflakes. She waved her hands around the room, and the snowflakes followed her motion. She willed them to form several different shapes: Snowmen, bigger snowflakes, people-

"No!" The voice of the king was sharp and cold. Elsa flinched and the snowflakes fell to the floor and began freezing the floor where it hit, and the ice slowly began spreading.

The king's face softened slightly.

"I'm sorry, Elsa. I know it's a lot, but we're asking for control such that you never release the magic. Controlled release is easy, it's having the control _not_ to release that we're looking for." Elsa's eyes lowered to the floor at her father's feet as if shamed.

Anna couldn't believe it. They were asking Elsa to pretend her powers didn't exist? It made sense. They had locked the gates, likely for that same reason: to pretend Elsa wasn't any different from anyone else.

"This does give us an opportunity though."

Elsa's eyes shot up to her father's.

"If you have control, then melt the ice." The king pointed towards the section on the floor where Elsa had dropped the shining snowflakes. There was a sheet of ice about two feet in diameter where the flakes had fallen.

Her eyes widened as they followed the king's finger to the patch of ice. The ice began spreading at a much faster rate. Elsa silently willed the ice to go away.

It didn't listen. She thought back to earlier when she had hugged Anna and the frost left. She hadn't been thinking about anything, Elsa thought. Elsa tried to clear her mind of anything and everything. When she opened her eyes, the ice was still there and had once again quickened in its growth.

Elsa as a final resort went to her father and hugged him, hoping that it was the hug that had thawed the ice before.

The king misunderstood Elsa's intentions.

"It's okay, Elsa. You'll get it eventually. I know it." Nothing about he king's sounded at all reassuring to Elsa or anyone else who _might_ have been listening. It sounded as if he himself had given up, and it was all he could do to try to keep her hope alive.

Even Anna, who had firsthand witnessed Elsa's control firsthand, couldn't help but feel as though there was nothing that could be done about Elsa, and that she would have to spend her entire life isolated in her room.

He sighed as he took a small frying pan that he had placed over the fire when he had first arrived in the room and splashed the heated water over the frozen ground. At once, the ice was gone. He turned to leave, but Elsa noticed the shadow still underneath the door.

"Dad, _before you leave_," Elsa stressed sincerely hoping Anna would get the message. The shadow shifted slightly and, before too long, was gone. "I'm sorry for wasting your time." She tried to sound as sincere as possible, and it seemed to work.

Her father and mother had forced her to _lie_ to them, just so she could actually have a sister. It broke her heart, but not as much as it broke her heart to be separated from Anna, so that was a plus.

The king once again turned to leave. He put his key into the lock and turned it. His hand went for the knob and turned that as well. The silence in which he did so was surprising to Elsa. He quickly opened the door as if to find someone snooping. He passed a glance to Elsa before he walked through the door. When he did, he turned his head to the left, the way he come from and the way he always left, and he turned his head right. Right is the way he went. _'He suspects something.' _Elsa tried once more to make sure her sister was not going to be found out in case she had only rounded the corner.

"Dad, where are you going?" She asked.

"Just for a walk around the castle, Elsa." He said. The fact that he didn't cease walking to respond may have been a blessing, but at the moment it just gave Anna less time. Elsa hoped that she would be able to pick up on his voice if she hadn't thought to hide or leave.

It was all Elsa could do for her now, but it was enough.

Anna heard her father's voice very close to her, and coming closer. She ran to the nearest room that it would make sense for her to be in. Luckily, it was close by and a bathroom. She closed the door and glanced through the keyhole as her father passed by, inspecting everything. Everything, that is, except the very thing she was using to spy on him. Anna waited several minutes after he'd passed to come out. Just in case she would be caught, she tried to come up with a reasonable excuse. She slowly opened the door, and casually walked out of the bathroom.

"Anna, I was just looking for you." Came the voice of her father.

"Well, I was just in the bathroom." She said with a nervous smile.

"I can see that." He chuckled. Anna didn't buy his innocent laugh, but she tried not to look like she was onto his suspicion, as that would only confirm it.

"What took you so long, might I ask?"

"Your usual restroom habits. You know, things that would be kinda awkward for a princess to talk about with her father."

"Yes," He cleared his throat. "Of course. Well, I finished with Elsa early, so I'm going to take a walk through the garden with my extra time. Care to join me, Anna?"

Anna almost gasped at the invitation. He'd never asked her to do anything like that since locking Elsa up. In fact, he barely even talked to her. _'He doesn't just suspect. I think he _knows_.' __  
_

"That's fine." Anna said to her father. "I just realized how much fun it is to talk to the paintings in the gallery." She lied. It was dreadfully boring, but as was everything else she was forced to do since losing Elsa.

"Very well." He said as he turned around to venture into the gardens. Anna followed him as far as she could until she would have to turn off to get to the gallery. Once she had taken her turn and split off from her father, she waited several seconds before peaking around the corner to make sure he was gone and running back to her sister.

Elsa heard an intense knocking at the door. She very much hoped it was not her father with Anna in front of him, giving her a guilty look.

It wasn't that, but it was Anna.

"Is it going to be this stressful from now on? Because _that_ was ridiculous."


	23. Secrets Revealed

In the days that followed, Elsa and Anna continued to play while their parents were busy with meetings and other busy work rulers had to take part in. Even with the gates closed, the king and queen kept very busy.

Elsa and Anna would do all the things they used to in the ballroom. Elsa's room was considerably smaller, but there was till more than enough space for it.

When it would finally come time for their parents to come and "help" Elsa, Anna helped her sister get rid of the snow by throwing it out of her window. On one particular day, before they shared their good-bye hug, Elsa decided to ask something of her sister.

"I need you to do something for me, Anna."

"Anything." Anna said, confident Elsa wouldn't ask too much of her.

"I need you to spy on mom and dad. I'm pretty sure they know or at least suspect something."

Anna was taken aback by her sister's request.

"I don't think that's the best idea, Elsa."

"Why not?"

"If I get caught, there's no talking our way out of it. It'll be undeniable that we're going behind their backs."

"Anna, please. Just do this for me, okay? If you don't find out anything, then I won't ask you again."

"...okay." Anna finally agreed, despite her thoughts that it was still a terrible idea.

The sisters hugged and Anna ran out the door. She turned and ran toward her own living quarters. She ran right into her mother.

"Anna!" Her mother exclaimed as she was nearly knocked to the ground by her overly excited daughter. "What has gotten into you?"

"Sorry, just going to my room." Her mother raised an eyebrow.

"So quickly?"

_'Goodness!' _Anna thought. _'I'm legitimately going to my room and she's even skeptical of _that_.'_

"Yes." She said.

* * *

Later that night, Anna was sitting outside the door to her parent's room. She was hoping she wouldn't be able to hear anything indicating that they were suspicious even though all evidence these past few days indicated that they were. What she heard was just even more evidence that they knew.

"We need to ask them directly." The queen said to her husband.

"Like they would tell the truth? They haven't been for the past three days!" The king almost shouted back.

"That's assuming you're right." The queen seemed to be attempting to be reasonable with her husband.

"Of course I'm right. This strange behavior started on Anna's birthday. What a great present that must have been for her." He was right. Best. Present. Ever.

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything..." The queen tried to think of another possible reason, but she came up short.

"You just don't want us to take her back to the trolls." The king pointed out.

"What if I don't?" The queen got defensive. "We've already poked around inside her head once, I see no need to do it again."

"Except that Elsa's curse needs to remain a secret from everyone, honey. _everyone. _Including Anna."

"You're right, but do we need to continue this charade of them thinking they have the wool pulled over our eyes? What will that teach them for the future?"

"I don't think they think they've got us tricked." That was the last thing Anna heard from her father for a long time. She tried to stay a little while longer to make sure they fell asleep, but all that did was ensure that she did herself.

* * *

"Anna!" She woke up, startled by her mother's voice.

"Anna, what are you doing here?" Her father asked with a harsh anger coming through his tone.

"I had a nightmare." Anna said, almost proud of herself that she'd thought of that so quickly.

"I suppose you think you're terribly clever." Her mother said to her with irritation. Anna as well as the king looked at the queen in confusion. The also wore anger upon his face.

"What?" Anna, in her still slightly sleepy state, was confused.

"You were spying on us, weren't you, Anna?" Her father chose to roll with the direction his wife had chosen to turn the conversation.

"In my dream?" Anna asked innocently.

"God dammit, Anna! We know that you've been with Elsa!" Her father yelled.

"She locked me out of-"

"Anna!" It was her mother's turn to raise her voice.

"I don't know-"

Her father grabbed her arm, and began pulling her along, followed closely by her mother.

Anna began crying.

* * *

Elsa was lying in her bed, and she was reading a book while waiting for Anna to come knocking. Soon, Elsa got tired of her reading. She got out of bed and walked over to the shelf. She held the book in her hands for a few seconds, just staring at it. She began to slide the book back into its place on the shelf, willing it to get a layer of ice formed over it as she did.

Turning her back toward the bookshelf, Elsa put her hands up and began swirling snowflakes around the room.

She never would have done that before she opened the door for Anna; she was too scared to do that before.

Elsa thought back to her life before these past few days. She'd done nothing but sit around in her room, reading books and looking out the window for a few minutes before going and reading more books. Many of them multiple times. Even in isolation she was closest to her sister. Her sister who came to her room every day to ask her to play, and her sister who came to her room every birthday to tell her everything that had happened since the last one. Of course, she never _saw_ Anna, but her parents never talked to her outside of the context of her curse. They had never even said they loved her after the accident, but Anna had. They used to call her "honey" and "sweetie" and "dear," but that all changed after the accident. She always felt that the one who had the most reason to hate her, to stop loving her, was the only one who would never let go.

She didn't notice that the book on the shelf had lost it's layer of ice. If she had, she might have been able to prevent the events that were to follow in just eight years.

There was a knock at the door. Elsa hoped it was Anna, but she didn't want to betray their secrecy.

"Who is it?"

"A... Anna." Anna struggled out from behind the door.

Elsa's face lit up. She began to walk towards the door to open it up for Anna. She noticed Anna's strange tone for only a second.

She wished she had payed it more mind.

* * *

Anna was outside the door, standing in front of her parents.

She was praying to whatever gods may be out there somewhere that her sister would keep the door shut. Whether it be because Elsa had heard her strange tone or because she'd suffered from some kind of amnesia such that she'd completely forgotten the past few days.

No such luck.

Anna watched as Elsa opened the door with fantastic grin on her face.

Elsa's face went from one of excitement to one of fear as soon as she noticed the two figures standing behind Anna.

Elsa stood there for a second. Shocked that her parents were there.

"Sorry, Anna. I'm not supposed to play with you..." Elsa said as she began to close the door.

The door leading into Elsa's room was caught and forced back open by her mother.

"Busted." Said the queen, as she; the king; and Anna all entered into the room.

Elsa quickly backpedaled and fell onto the couch, still stunned.

She scanned the faces in front of her. Anna's held fear; disappointment; and shame. Her mother's was one of anger and sadness. Her father's was pure fury.

"So what happens now?" Elsa asked her family.

The king had been holding in his voice this whole time, but now he unleashed it.

"Now, your mother and I take Anna back to the trolls, and from now on, you will stay in this room; the door will remain locked; I will personally deliver your meals such that you will _never_ leave this room again. Give me your key."

Elsa walked slowly toward her desk with her eyes wide open and her mouth agape.

She grabbed the key and walked slowly over to her father. She held the key out to him and he roughly plucked it out of her hand and violently shoved it into his pocket. It almost seemed like he wasn't sure if the look on his face or the tone of his voice was enough to portray how infuriated he was.

Elsa went and plopped herself back on the couch. She was expecting a lecture to come to her ears, but the only noises she heard were Anna screams as her father picked her up of the ground effortlessly and walked out the door.

With Anna's small stature and thin body alongside his own strength, it wasn't hard at all to hold her in one arm while he closed and locked the door behind him.

As soon as Anna's voice faded, Elsa ran to the door to open it, but the knob didn't budge. Elsa burst into tears and curled herself up against the door which began to freeze as her curse went out of control.

She'd lost her sister again, and this time she didn't even need to hurt her to do it.


	24. The Trolls

Anna was screaming as she was carried through the corridors of the castle. Due to the castle's heavily reduced staff, no one was around to hear the princess's cries. Even if there was someone to hear, this was the _king of Arendelle_, and they were servants. They couldn't quite confront the king about what they were hearing.

The king and queen eventually made it to the stables. While the king was holding Anna, the queen readied the horses for herself and her husband. They saddled up and quickly galloped off over the bridge and into Arendelle. The king had his hand over the mouth of his daughter to try and muffle the noise from the citizens of his kingdom. After several minutes of riding, they were out of Arendelle and into the surrounding forests.

They dodged trees along the trail to the trolls dwelling place. After about an hour of riding, Anna got tired of screaming and quieted down. Shortly after that, she fell asleep.

* * *

Pabbie heard a commotion not far away from where he was currently resting. Then he heard Cliff's voice heralding the arrival of the King of Arendelle. Pabbie immediately got to his feet and began waddling towards visitors.

"What happened?" The troll king asked his old friend. "Is it Anna again?"

"Yes." Came the king's simple reply as he handed the heavily slumbering princess over to the troll.

Pabbie brought his hand the the girl's head and gave a bewildered look to the king.

"She's fine, your majesty. There is nothing I can do to make her better."

"She found out about Elsa. We need you to wipe her memory."

Pabbie closed his eyes; looked down; and slowly shook his head back and forth. He handed the princess off to Bulda and Cliff.

"Take her to my sleeping area. I have a feeling this will get... loud." The two trolls nodded and began waddling away, working together to bring Anna with them.

"And don't let Kristoff see her. We don't want him thinking you guys are taking in any human child you see, or worse, suggesting you should."

"It's alright!" They called back. "He's out working with the ice harvesters today!"

The troll gave a soft smile toward the three figures moving away. As he turned back to the king however, his face changed from that of kindness to one of anger.

"What did you do?"

Seeing the anger on the troll's face and hearing it in his voice, the king tried to take the blame while still defending himself.

"I may have done the wrong things, but they were for the right reasons."

The troll shook his head almost violently.

"You have done the most heinous thing for the most heinous reasons. You have broken your family for your fear of your daughter."

"You said that other people would be scared of her. That they would hurt her, so we prevented that possibility."

"I _showed_ you other people's fear, other people hurting her, because that is easy to illustrate. I _told_that fear in general will be her enemy. That is including both yours and hers."

"My methods have prevented any further accidents."

"You methods have delayed them at best. I can guarantee that if you continue on with this, something else _will_ happen."

"When I relayed my plan to you, you said nothing."

"I could not have guessed that you would shatter Elsa's relationship with her sister. All because her parents are afraid of her."

"Of course we're afraid!" The queen cut in. "She's cursed, and her curse grants her terrible power. Power that can kill.

"She's _gifted_, and her _gift_ grants her _beautiful_ power. Power that can _build_." The troll corrected.

"If she can control it." The queen responded.

"Which you are not helping." The troll said. "Let them free. See how much control Elsa has over her power when she isn't forced into fear."

The king shook his head.

"I refuse to take that chance. Just wipe Anna's memory. _please_."

"Fine. I will do this for you. But _don't_ ever come back asking more favors. Especially when Elsa ends up freezing Arendelle over. You had your chance to receive my help, but you wasted it." Pabbie turned his attention back to Cliff and Bulda.

"Please bring the princess to me."

Cliff and Bulda passed glances to each other before they passed their gaze back to the troll king. They both grew a nervous smile on their faces.

"She's with Kristoff, isn't she?" Their awkwardly smiling faces slowly nodded back to the troll king.

The king grew furious, a feeling shared but not voiced by the queen. "Where is my daughter?!"

The troll king answered softly.

"At the moment. She is with my grandson. Where my grandson is? That I do not know."

* * *

Kristoff walked with Sven through the troll's home. He noticed many of them crowding around a couple humans. They looked quite familiar. They looked angry. Kristoff decided that it was best for him not to get involved. He was stopped by his adoptive parents.

"Hello, Kristoff. What brings you home so early?"

"I don't have the money to upgrade my sled, so I still have that little one that can only hold one block. Needless to say, it doesn't take me long to finish for the day. You know this, why are you asking?"

"No reason. Come on, we have company." They motioned for him to follow them to the two guests.

"No thanks. Even though I wasn't working long, it's quite tiring running up and down the mountain. Just let me rest for a while."

"No." They both said in unison. "You would want to meet them. It's the King and Queen of Arendelle."

"No, I'm tired." At that, the trolls reluctantly walked away. The young boy walked over to his sleeping quarters. Before he got there though, he noticed that there was a young red haired girl lying in his grandfather's bed.

He nudged her with his shoe, wanting to wake her to inquire about who she was and why she was there.

Anna woke up and stared at the young man who'd kicked her awake.

"Who are you?" She finally asked him.

"Kristoff. You?"

"My name is Anna."

Kristoff smiled as a soft clopping could be heard from behind him.

"And this is Sven." He said, sidestepping to reveal his reindeer best friend.

"OH MY GOSH! IT'S SO CUTE!" She said as she jolted up and rushed towards the reindeer, embracing him in a tight hug.

"Don't call him cute." Kristoff said simply. Anna began to scratch the reindeer's neck. Sven began to kick his leg in the rhythm of her scratches.

"He is though." Anna said before letting loose a gasp. "Can I ride him?!"

"Sure I don't see why-" Kristoff was interrupted by Anna happy squeals and her attempts to mount Kristoff.

"Hang on, feisty pants. You can't ride him in here. We go outside."

"Feisty pants? I'm wearing a dress."

"I didn't mean it literally."

Anna followed the older boy and the reindeer outside of the boundaries of the troll's dwelling place, and Anna, with the help of Kristoff, mounted the reindeer.

"So why are you here?" Kristoff asked her. Anna's face darkened.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, it's fine. I... found out my sister's secret, and now my parents have brought me to the trolls to erase my memory. Again, apparently."

Kristoff put two and two together, thinking back to when he first met the trolls.

"Your sister can make ice, right?"

"Yes. How did you...?"

"I followed your family here five years ago. I followed a trail of ice and heard talk of power."

"Oh." Anna said as Kristoff walked closer to Sven.

"Okay, buddy. I want you to take it-" He was interrupted by Sven as he rushed off with Anna on his back, squealing with delight.

Kristoff yelled after them.

"Sorry! We like to go fast."

"I like fast!" She called back.

Kristoff chuckled at the sight of Sven running around with Anna on his back. That was before he noticed Sven running straight for a tree branch at eye level to Anna. Kristoff yelled toward them, trying to get their attention, but they had gotten too far away to be able to hear him over Anna's own laughs.

"Sven!" He called to no avail. "Anna, look out!" He tried again in vain.

Anna never noticed the branch until she plowed head first into it. She fell backwards off of Sven and hit the ground unconscious. Kristoff ran to her. Sven walked ever so reluctantly toward the limp body.

"Come on Sven. Let's take her back to Grand Pabbie."

* * *

**WOO! So, I want to thank everyone who has ever reviewed but especially LPScienceRatLP. You know, you said "These things happen" and "Take your time." And it's precisely that that forced me to stay up super late finishing this chapter.(even though I'm still uploading it in the afternoon) Thank you. You are awesome, man. Or woman. Or... something else. I guess I shouldn't just assume. Oh well, you are awesome whether you are man, woman, or... chair. Although if you are a chair, you are much more impressive to me than I initially thought, and you are hands down the _coolest_ chair I have ever had the pleasure of communicating with. Not that I make a habit out of that. Anyhow. Well done, chair friend. Please continue to be the most impressive chair in history. Also, I hope this chapter is good. I don't know though, since I wrote it while having difficulty keeping my eyes open. Note to future me: Don't write chapters when you are so tired you cannot keep your eyes open.  
**


	25. The Next Day

**Alright. So, I got a review asking a good question. Here it is: "**Hai I have a question :)  
There was a point in the story where Elsa is pained at the use of her magic, and I know that now we're at a kind of past event in the story, but will what I mentioned earlier turn up again later in the story? I just thought that you brought an interesting point in the story earlier, and I'm very curious.  
I'm sorry I don't review as often, but I'm still out there reading your wonderful chapters! :)  
-Olo Eopia03**" And I am going to answer that question here since I don't plan to do much more with that concept until the end of this story. And even then, I kind of want it to be a little bit of a mystery to my characters. Basically, in my Frozenverse, every power has different forms. Take Elsa's ice ability. It has a passive form, (Immunity to extreme temperatures.) an active form, (Controlling ice and snow, controlling cold weather, phasing through ice, etc.) and a "final" form/perfect form. (creating beautiful ice that will never melt and creating snow-based life.) The thing with the perfect form is that you can only discover it when you are of a pure heart. When Elsa ran away, there was nothing but excitement, freedom, and the wonder of a child in her mind. This enabled her to _discover_ the perfect form; however, even though she knows about it, she needs to have that pure heart in order to use it without intense pain. I hope that made at least a little bit of sense.**

* * *

The next day...

* * *

Elsa sat in her room trying not to freeze everything she touched. It had gotten much more difficult after the events of the day before. Elsa wished that she could honestly say she wholly blamed her parents. Of course, they lied to, and kept her from, Anna, but they had done it for everyone's good. And Elsa couldn't blame anyone but herself that they had even gotten caught. She'd been stupid. Throwing the snow out the window for anyone to come across and tell the king, down to telling Anna to spy on their parents.

_'How could I have thought that was a good idea?'_ She thought to herself. _'__We already knew they suspected something. Anna even knew it wouldn't help anything to hear their suspicion from their own mouths, so what could have come out of that _except_ us getting caught.'_

Elsa was brought out of her thoughts by a noise at her door. the familiar sound of Anna's body thudding against the door, and the sound of her sliding down into a sitting position.

"Elsa?" Anna asked. She wasn't expecting a reply, and she didn't get one.

"I know I generally do these little talks on special occasions, but I forgot to on my birthday. I'm sorry. Unless, of course, you _do_ hate me. In which case, I'm sorry I'm here at all. Whether or not you hate me, I think I'd come anyway. I can't really explain it, but I feel close to you when I do this. I almost feel like I did back then."

Anna had a soft smile on her face. Little did she know how close she actually was to her sister. Elsa was leaning against the door just as her sister was. There were mere inches between them. Elsa periodically looked through the keyhole of the door to see the back of her sisters head. Even while only being able to see Anna's red hair, Elsa loved the vision. Any sight of her sister was a good sight to see.

Elsa's room began to freeze over. Anna didn't seem to notice the drop in temperature.

Elsa almost wished that she could run away. Well she could, but she was a 13 _princess_. Where would she go where she'd be safe, but also where no one would send her back to her home? Elsa heard Anna's voice again after a minute or so of silence.

"Well. I'd better go. If dad catches me here he'll be mad."

_'No kidding.'_ Elsa thought as she heard Anna get up and walk away from the door.

* * *

That night, a tall blonde man was sneaking through the kingdom of Arendelle. He was making his way toward the castle. He waited patiently for a long time so as to get used to the rounds the guards made so that he could sneak right past them. It was surprisingly simple. For being grown men, this young one had outsmarted them stupidly easily. He made his way to the back of the castle, to its most secluded edge.

He had to make a decision.

The second floor of the castle most likely held the royal family and was farther from the kitchen, which was his desired destination, but would likely have less guards to hear him break in. The first floor, however, would be much closer to the kitchen, but would likely have more servants and guards hanging about. He decided on the second floor. The factor that pushed him into doing that was that he really liked climbing. After ten minutes of climbing and three times of losing his grip, he finally made it to the window of the secluded room of the second floor of the castle. Now came the difficult part. Using a crowbar, he forced the window open, breaking the locking mechanism in the process.

_'Hopefully no one will notice that.'_ He thought.

He slowly and silently pushed the window out of his way as to grant himself access. Once it had been opened enough such that he could slide through the window, he did. He closed the window behind him and waited for a few seconds to let his eyes adjust slightly to the dimer light in the room. After he'd waited just enough time to be able to see the door, he sneaked toward it. After what felt to him like minutes his silent footsteps had brought him to the door. His hand reached out and grabbed it. Next, he began the process of turning it. It didn't turn.

"Good job." The blonde whispered to himself. "You picked a room in the castle that's locked."

"Who's there?"

"And one that has a girl in it."

"I asked who you were!" She said, frightened.

_'Understandable.'_

"My name is Garret." The blonde answered. "Might I ask your name?"

He tried to act as much like he wasn't a thief as possible.

"No." The girl responded.

"Well, that's rude." He said nonchalantly.

"So is breaking into my bedroom." She countered.

"Feels more like a prison. Who locks the door to their room all night?" He asked.

"... My- I do."

"You hesitated."

"What? No, I didn't."

Garret's eyes had fully adjusted to the dark and now he could vaguely see the smallish girl with platinum blonde hair.

"Yes, you did. I'm pretty sure you're lying, So why don't you just tell me what's going on, Elsa?"

"How do you know me?"

"You're the princess of Arendelle. Once I could actually see you, how could I _not_ know you?" Elsa changed the subject after that.

"So why are you here?" She asked.

He sighed. "I am a thief. I am dirt poor, and I was coming in here to steal something to eat. Now what's the story with you?"

"I should get the servants to throw you into the dungeon."

"I haven't stolen anything."

"You've broken into my room."

"Is it illegal to break into a prison cell?"

"It's _not _prison cell."

"Then prove me wrong. Tell me why is the door locked with no sign of a key anywhere?"

"Protection."

"That's vague. Yours or everyone else's?

Garret could see that the young girl was hurt. He instantly felt bad for everything he'd said earlier, but he would resist the urge to comfort the younger girl with a hug.

"Everyone else's." With those two words from Elsa, he failed. He walked over to the young princess and wrapped his arms protectively around her.

_'God, I hope no one finds this creepy.'_

Elsa pushed him away.

"No, I'll hurt you. I hurt everyone." She said. He continued to be in his, "comfort the hurting girl at all costs" mode.

"You didn't hurt me, I'm fine. What could you possibly do to hurt me?" He asked the princess.

"I'm cursed." She said. Elsa brought her bare hands into view and willed the snowflakes to come forth. In a small glow of blue light, they did.

"That's no curse!" He almost yelled. After he said that, he immediately cupped his hands over his mouth. After a few seconds, he put his hands down as continued.

"That's a gift."

"You only think that because you don't know what it feels like." She told him.

"I don't know what it feels like to be able to make snowflakes, but I do have a gift of my own."

Elsa's face lit up. Garret couldn't help but smile at the girl in front of him.

"What can you do?"

"I can find anything anywhere." He said, proud of himself. Elsa looked skeptical.

"I'll prove it!" He said. "Bring me anything you want me to find."

Elsa ran to an old chessboard on a shelf and grabbed one of the white pawns.

Garret looked intently at the pawn before he gave it back to Elsa with a black streak on the top of it that had not been there before.

Garret looked the other way. Elsa threw a blanket over his head just to be sure. She ran over to the bookshelf and pulled a large book out just enough to place the pawn behind it. Elsa ran back and pulled the blanket off of the blonde haired man while looking quite proud of herself. Garret smiled, shook his head, walked straight over to the bookshelf, and pulled the exact right book from it, freeing the pawn. He looked back at the princess smugly. She smiled in wonder.

"Alright, well I have to get going. Don't want to get caught!" He said humorously. Elsa's face sank.

"Sorry." He said sadly. Elsa's face brightened slightly.

"Come back tomorrow night?" She asked hopefully.

"... Maybe." The man said.

"I'll have food for you. I promise." Garret gave Elsa a half smile before he swiftly climbed down the castle and walked toward the main gate.

_'Please come back.'_

* * *

**You know, I thought this was going to be the last chapter of these flashbacks, but then I decided this would be a good way to introduce another one of my original characters. WOO! by the way, It seems that I wasn't so good with explaining what happened to Anna. Basically all that happened was Kristoff and Sven got Anna back to Pabbie, he wiped her memory, and the king and queen went on their merry way. She was fine. She had to be unconscious to get her memory wiped, and the king would probably have tried to kill Pabbie if he smashed Anna's head with a rock, so I had her put into an accident with Kristoff.**


	26. One Day Later Five Years Later

One day later...

* * *

Elsa sat up in bed, waiting for her, "Imaginary friend" to come back. She sat in the darkness with her eyes fixed on the window. Several times in her wait, she'd thought she'd seen a figure outside her window, only to later find out that it was a cloud blocking some of the moonlight. Finally though, the window opened and a figure stepped inside.

"Garret?" She asked.

"It's me." He answered.

Elsa smiled and ran over to a table. She picked up a platter and brought the meals to him. He looked at them and noticed that it was a lot of food for a barely teenage girl. He also noticed that there was what seemed to be traditionally breakfast foods that made up about a third of food on the plate.

"Oh... Elsa, I appreciate that, but you can't just _not eat._"

"You don't eat." She countered.

"That's different." He started "I'm used to it... and I'm not royalty."

"I can do what I want, and I want to do this for you. Will you just go and eat it now?"

"No. Not unless you eat it first. I'll take whatever's left over once you're full. Even if there is nothing. Although I would be quite impressed if you finished all that."

Elsa obliged and inspected the plate. She then grabbed the smallest spec of food she could find, and brought to her mouth. After she chewed it and swallowed it, she smiled at him.

"All done."

"Again, I appreciate that, but no."

Elsa frowned. She eventually conceded, and began to eat the food on the plate. He smiled softly as she did. As she ate, he explained his life to her. He'd led a good life, but his parents tried to take advantage of his powers. He'd use his powers to help his parents in gambling type games. Being able to mark every single card so that he'd know exactly what was in everybody's hand, among other things. They got rich, but they made enemies. Eventually, Garret grew a conscience and decided to leave the immoral situation he had found himself in. Times were tough as a homeless eighteen year-old boy, and he eventually turned back to stealing things just so he could survive, but he'd always felt better when he did that, because everyone knew he was just a street rat. Whereas before, Everyone thought, that while he spent his time in shady areas, he and his family were just ordinary people.

After Elsa had finished and argued with Garret some more, he sat down and began to eat the rest while his host began to return the favor. When they were finished, the blonde man got up with fury on his face over what he'd just heard.

"Your parents are such baaaa-" his eyes fell on the young girl's face.

"-d people."

His eyes widened.

"You didn't tell anyone about me, did you?"

"Why would I tell anyone about my imaginary friend?" She asked. "It's not like they would care that I had one."

For several years, Garret came to visit princess Elsa. They became very close friends, and it almost made life worth living for Elsa, but all things must come to an end. The end for Elsa came five years later. During the worst two days of her life.

* * *

Five years later...

* * *

The day started like most other days. The only exception was that her parents were gone. Elsa didn't often see her parents, but the fact that they were gone still put her on edge. She sat her bed, reading a book she had read several times in her isolation. Elsa jumped as the window to her room opened up.

"What are you doing here? It's the middle of the day."

"I'm sorry, I wanted to come see you before I left for Corona." He said. He didn't waste any time getting to why he'd come so early.

"Corona? Why are you going to Corona?" Elsa was confused and slightly hurt that her only friend was leaving her.

"I've been given a job. That's really all I can tell you, sorry." He said apologetically.

"You can't go! What if I need you?" She was almost crying.

"Here, give me your hand." He said as he walked right over to her. She did as he'd said.

Garret wrapped his hand around Elsa's. She felt a strange feeling as her hand was in his. She looked into his eyes; she would have said they were glowing as he looked into hers forcing a soft smile on his face despite the pain he seemed to be experiencing. Elsa almost asked him if he was alright, but his pained posture eased up, and he spoke to her first.

"Elsa... You're eighteen. I don't think you need your imaginary friend anymore." He chuckled out.

"Besides," He nodded toward her hand. "If you ever need me, I'll always know where you are."

Elsa brought her hand to her face, and smiled slightly at the black mark on her hand that definitely wasn't there before. It was subtle, barely noticeable if you weren't looking for something out of the ordinary, but it was there, and knowing that her friend could find her comforted her more than it probably should have.

She too distracted by the mark on her hand to notice her friend was leaving.

"Hey, wait!" She ran up to him and hugged him. "Thank you for everything." She said with a tear running down her face.

"And thank you for everything, Princess Elsa." He took a couple steps back towards the window, keeping his eyes on Elsa.

When his right hand touched the windowsill he turned his head and and ducked through the window into the outside world. He shifted himself such that he could begin his descent. Elsa heard a scraping noise; saw his hands disappear; and heard a thud against the ground below. She ran to the window and stuck her head out of it.

"Garret!" She cried. He merely chuckled and gave her a thumbs up.

"Five years of sneaking through that window, and it's my final visit that I fall. Excellent final impression."

"You could climb up here and try again?" She offered.

He chuckled once more.

"No, I need to go. I'm sorry." He turned and began walking away.

"Wait. One last time, please wait!" He stopped to look at her.

"Will I see you again?" She asked him.

He shook his head solemnly.

"I guess anything's possible, but I wouldn't count on it."

Elsa nodded slowly and brought her head back through the window as he turned one last time to leave. Elsa closed the window. She slowly walked over to her desk. Her face sunk further with each step. By the time Elsa had reached the desk she was tearing up. She sat down and folded her arms, placing her head on top of them. Her desk froze.

Elsa didn't know how long she was lying like that. She might have fallen asleep for all she know, but she was brought out of her trance by a soft knock at the door.

"Elsa?" It was Gerda. "I have news of your parents."

The voice was somber. Gerda clearly wasn't expecting a response because she continued.

"They never made it to Corona. They have been pronounced dead. I'm sorry. The funeral is to be held tomorrow afternoon."

And like that, Elsa had lost her parents and her best friend. Granted, she wasn't all that fond of her parents, but they were still family. They were still gone. Plus, her heart sank for Anna. Her parents had betrayed her, but they made her forget about that such that she actually had a descent, although structured on lies, relationship with them. To top off all the emotional trauma she was feeling at the time, she knew she wouldn't be able to go to the funeral. She would lose control, and the entire kingdom would be present to watch it. However sad it made her feel, not being at the funeral despite what her citizens would think of her, would be far better than going and freezing all of them to death. The fact that the door was still locked and she had no key was absent from her mind.

So, she kept herself locked in her room. She didn't even try to open the door. Just before the funeral, however, it opened by itself. Gerda stepped through the door and handed an envelope to the princess, smiling softly and sadly at the frost that coated the entire room.

"I found it while going through your parents things. It's addressed to you." That was all Gerda said before she turned and left the room, closing it, but not locking it, behind her.

Elsa opened the seal on the envelope and took its contents out. There was nothing in it besides the key to Elsa's room. A tear fell from Elsa's eye as she remembered back to when and why it was taken from her. Elsa slowly got up from her desk and strode softly and slowly to the door, key in hand. She placed the key in the keyhole and turned it, locking the door. It began to snow in her room. She then put the key on her dresser and walked back to the door. She sat down and leaned her back against the door. She let her tears out and ice exploded out around her, and the once steadily falling snow froze in the air.

Some time later a series of three knocks came against the door.

"Elsa, please. I know you're in there."

Elsa did _not_ need this right now. She'd just lost her friend and her parents, but she had lost her sister long ago. She didn't need to hear her sister pleading for her to come out now.

"People are asking where you've been. They say have courage, and I'm trying to. I'm right out here for you just let me in."

Elsa's eyes shot to the key on her dresser. It would be so easy. Her eyes then turned to the scene in front of her: ice everywhere, snow suspended in midair. She couldn't show her sister. She couldn't let her in. She had to protect her. Conceal, don't feel.

"We only have each other. It's just you and me. What are we gonna do?"

Elsa has been asking herself that question all day. She couldn't answer the question, though, as she had no idea herself.

Then, Elsa heard her sister's voice one last time. The words were struggling to come out of her mouth.

"Do you want to build a snowman?"

* * *

**I hope that was a good chapter and not at all disappointing. Next chapter will be present day! WOOOOOOO! Gosh! I've been on this story for, what, six chapters? dang. It'll be nice to finally be back with good old current times. See you then!**


	27. I Can't Think of a Name For This Chapter

**This is the first in a short series of shorter chapters. Just thought I'd let you guys know.**

* * *

The story of the past had been finished. Elsa had relayed all that had happened those 9 years ago. All except her midnight-robber-turned-best-friend Garret. No sense in telling her that part. It would just raise more questions.

Elsa looked at her new friend. She noticed a look of anger on Isabella's face.

"That's what was best left forgotten." Elsa told her.

"I can see why." Isabel left it at that for a while, but spoke up after a few seconds. "Why would she be mad at you?"

"I didn't tell her what had happened before she got her memory back, and I'm the one that told her to spy on our parents."

"I don't think she's mad at you at all." Isabel tried to reassure Elsa.

"Whether she is or isn't, she won't speak with me."

"And you think she'll speak with me?" Isabel asked.

"Kristoff is out harvesting ice and I didn't tell her, and it was mostly my fault we got caught. You're the only person besides the servants that's here that hasn't done something to hurt her."

"I would like to point out that you just made a category consisting of only yourself." Isabal stated. She let that sit in the air for a few moments before she continued. "I'll try to talk to her."

Isabel turned on her heel and walked towards the door. As she passed underneath the door frame, she stopped and turned again.

"Elsa, don't blame yourself for getting caught. It would have happened eventually. Whether you told Anna to spy or not." She turned one last time and ran down the hall... in the wrong direction.

Elsa almost laughed, but found sadness in what Isabel had said.

"The results might not have been so sad for both of us though." She whispered softly to herself.

* * *

It took Isabel almost ten minutes to find Anna room even though it should have taken her _maybe _three. She knocked slowly on the door.

Anna had woken up from her dream a few minutes ago, but she couldn't bring herself out of bed. She was simply lying there, having a staring contest with the ceiling. They had had several of these so far. The ceiling had won some, Anna had almost won others. Anna knew she wasn't ever going to pull out a victory, but she couldn't tear herself from the riveting competition.

Until, of course, she heard the knock.

She sighed.

"Go away Elsa." She said.

"It's not Elsa." Isabel voice carried softly through the door.

"Oh, it's the girl I just met two days ago. In that case, go away." She told her new friend.

"Come on, Anna, let me in." Anna heard the voice give out a heavy sigh. "Elsa sent me."

"Hey, I just turned you down thinking you were Elsa, and then I turned you down knowing it was really you, but now that I know _you_ were _sent_ by Elsa, sure! come in!" One could almost taste the sarcasm in the air.

Anna hear a sound emanating from the doorknob. She then heard Isabel's voice once more.

"It's locked."

"I wasn't being _serious_!" Anna almost yelled.

"Come on, Anna. Elsa is very concerned, and she seems to think I can help. I don't know _why_, but I don't want to disappoint the queen. I don't want her to freeze my heart, and I don't think you want her to freeze my heart either."

"I don't..." Anna trailed off.

"Then let me in." Said Isabel.

"No."

"Anna, if you don't let me in, I swear I will burn this door down."

"Elsa wouldn't want you to do that."

"_Elsa_ probably would have made a column of ice and used it as a battering ram by now."

"No, she wouldn't have."

"You're right, she's a lot more patient than I am, but it would happen eventually if you kept being stubborn."

Anna chuckled at that.

"See, even from _behind_ the door, I'm making you feel better. Let me in and we'll see if talking it out helps."

Anna got out of bed and walked over to grab the key to her room so she could unlock it. She did so and opened the door for her friend.

"See? It was that easy!" Isabel said.

"I can still throw you out." Anna grumbled.

"So, what's wrong?" Isabel asked.

"You mean Elsa told you to come here to talk to me and she didn't tell you what happened?"

"No, I know what happened." Isabel began. "I wan't to know what you think of what happened."

"For the first time since the accident, my life makes sense, but the life I had before, though it didn't make sense, was more enjoyable than the one I had where everything made sense."

"I have no idea what you just said."

"My life, when I couldn't remember anything, had some things in it that were... strange. Elsa shut me out for seemingly no reason; I never seemed to have any memories of any season but winter; and inexplicably my suddenly began treating me like a _daughter_ again after I turned ten. It was a boring life, and it made no sense, but it wasn't horrible. My _real _life? My own sister almost killed me; my parents shut me out just as much as my sister did, though _they_ had no excuse; I finally reunite with Elsa just for them to tear us apart again; and then they treat my like a daughter again because they feel _guilty._ Sure, that makes more sense, but it sucks!"

"Are you done?" Isabel said with a smile.

"You're not taking this seriously." Anna deadpanned.

"I'm sorry, you're just so adorable when you're ranting."

"I have a boyfriend."

Isabel seemed to ignore that comment and asked the princess a question.

"Can I ask question?"

"Go ahead."

Isabel asked another question.

"How does what happened or why it happened change what's happening now? You have your sister back. You're best friends. _Why_ you lost her shouldn't matter. Whether it's because she studied to be queen or she was protecting you from her. That doesn't change the fact that she's here now. Also, you're anger at her is ruining that. You need to let it go or you'll lose her again."

Anna brought her eyes to those of Isabel. Anna looked shocked.

"I'm not mad at Elsa!" Anna said.

"She seems to think so." Anna bolted from her bed and ran toward the door. She hastily flung it open. It hit the wall with a loud thud, but Anna was already too far down the hall to hear it.

Isabel smiled. She _was_ able to help.

Cool.

* * *

Elsa was nearly tackled to the ground by her sister.

"ElsaI'msosorryIdidn'tmeantomakeyouthinkIwasmadatyoupleaseforgiveme."

"... what?"

"Elsa..."

"I got that part."

"I'm so sorry..."

"You're forgiven...?"

"I wasn't at that part yet!"

"Why are you apologizing, Anna?"

"I was getting to that, but you interrupted me."

"Shouldn't _I _be apologizing to _you_?" Elsa asked.

"For what?"

"For getting us caught all those years ago, and for not telling you about what happened all those years ago _before_ you went to the trolls."

"Elsa, nothing you could have told me would have changed _any_ of what happened." Anna told her.

Isabel walked slowly through the door into the throne room. The sisters both brought their eyes to hers.

"What took you so long?" Anna asked her friend.

"I was _walking_ while you just bolted straight here!" Isabel answered.

"You got lost?" Anna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I got lost."


	28. The Chess Match

A few days later...

* * *

Elsa studied Anna intently. She was waiting for Anna to make her move or, more accurately, waiting for Anna to make her _mistake._

Anna and Elsa sat in silence during their little game. They were both very much trying to outwit the other. At first they were trying to _win_ the game, but Anna quickly got bored and started trying to _lose. _Elsa wouldn't have any of that, and it quickly turned into each of them trying to make the other sister win.

And that was just their _first _game. This was their third.

Elsa glanced from Anna to the board and back. Anna's eyes were only on the board. It was almost as if Elsa wasn't even there. Anna wished that was the case since then she wouldn't be playing the most boring game of all time. At least she was with Elsa.

That though made Anna quick make eye contact with Elsa and give her sister a sincere smile. Then her eyes went back down to the board.

A few seconds passed.

"Will you just make a move already?" Elsa asked. She seemed quite frustrated. She apparently didn't see the humor in the fact that Anna was trying to end this game as quickly as possible, and yet she was taking forever to make a single move.

A devilish grin appeared on Anna's face as she moved her bishop just enough... so that Elsa could get her king in checkmate.

Elsa sighed.

She brought her hand to a white pawn that had a small black streak over the top of it. She slowly moved it forward one space.

"What happened?" Anna asked.

"What do you mean?" Her confused sister asked her.

"What happened to that pawn?" She rephrased.

Elsa brought her eyes down to the pawn in her hand. She moved her hand so that she could see what Anna was referring to.

"Dirt." She said simply.

Anna picked up the pawn and studied the mark upon the top of it. She rubbed it vigorously with her thumb, but the mark stayed in place. Anna made a point of putting it back to where it was before Elsa moved it.

"That's not where it was." Elsa said, moving it forward.

"Yes it is." Anna replied, moving backward.

"That's where it was _before_ it was my turn, but I moved it there _as_ my turn." Elsa said, moving forward once more and keeping her hand on it to prevent Anna from moving it back once again.

It didn't prevent Anna from trying, nor did it prevent Anna from succeeding. Elsa almost marveled at the strength her sister seemed to possess. Anna didn't even seem to need a fraction of her strength to shove Elsa's hand aside and push the pawn back. Elsa reasoned that the years of confinement must have weakened her muscles. She'd left herself a mental note that she should see if she can work on that.

Elsa glared at Anna, waiting for her to make a move.

"What? It's your turn!" Anna told her.

Elsa looked incredulously at her sister. Elsa then brought a hand slowly to the pawn once more and moved it forward a single space.

"You're sure you want to do that?" Anna asked.

"Yes!" Elsa almost yelled. She immediately felt guilty for her outburst and shrank into the back of her chair.

"You could have checkmated me." Anna informed her.

"I'm aware." Her sister replied.

Anna went back to studying the board, much to Elsa frustration. This period was much shorter, however.

Anna brought a hand to her knight and moved it toward the queen's queen. She had put it into a position such that, in her next move, the queen could be taken by the knight. Elsa stared at the board in wonder. Anna had positioned her pieces such that if Elsa's queen made a move _not_ against her king, Elsa would pay dearly for it._  
_

The queen sighed.

"You know, if you spent this cleverness trying to _win_, you just might actually have beaten me. How did you get so good?"

"It was the only thing dad would play with me. How did _you_ get so good?"

"I played quite a bit." Elsa said, recalling her days in captivity when Garret would grace her grace with his presence.

Anna looked at her sister suspiciously.

Elsa coughed once and added: "I also had several books on the game. That probably help more than all the times playing with myself although that did help me visualize what they were referring to."

Anna's look of suspicion did not falter for a while, but finally it did, and Elsa's rapidly beating heart slowed. She wasn't even aware how nervous she was.

She didn't have a good reason to be lying to her sister- well, she wasn't _lying_, that mark on the pawn could be some kind of dirt, and she did play chess by herself and read books about it, but that was mostly because she desperately wanted to beat Garret at the game. That guy was very good, just slightly better than Anna at winning than she was at losing. Or attempting to.

Elsa's hand quickly reached for the scarred pawn and moved it forward, calling Anna's bluff.

Anna groaned in frustration. She took a pawn of her own and moved it forward.

"Will you just beat me already?!" Anna pleaded.

"Never." Elsa answered, curling her fingers, once again, around the scarred pawn and sliding it forward.

They did this for several turns until their pawns got to the second to last space on the other sides.

They glared at each other for a while. It was Elsa's turn.

"Not that this isn't a blast, but I'm going to interrupt here before it turns into a tie." Isabel said from the doorway. It was then that Elsa realized how ridiculous they were being.

"Who wins?" Anna asked.

Isabel studied the board.

"Well, it looks like Elsa's in a better position..." Isabel trailed off as she noticed the satisfied grin on Anna's face.

"You were _trying_ to lose?" Isabel asked.

"Strange, I know." Elsa said.

Isabel began to look slightly impressed.

"If Anna wins like she loses, I daresay she might be better than you, Elsa. I _never_ would have even considered that."

"Hey." Anna cried defensively.

"Well, she _might _be if she could be more patient." Elsa replied.

"Hey!" Anna cried more loudly.

Elsa gave a smile to Anna and brought her into a hug.

"We were only teasing." Said Elsa.

* * *

_Meanwhile at the top of the North Mountain..._

Olaf sat in front of Marshmallow. He had completely lost track of time since he'd began waiting for Marshmallow to do _something_.

Finally, he lost his patience. It's actually quite impressive he kept it this long.

"This is boring." He told his big little brother.

Marshmallow slowly moved his head to look at Olaf. The locked eyes for a few moments before Marshmallow broke eye contact and lock his eyes once more to the door into the palace.

Olaf sighed.

"What do you usually do to pass the time?" Olaf asked him.

Marshmallow once again brought his eyes to Olaf's; waited a few seconds; and then shrugged his shoulders.

Then, he brought his eyes to the door. Olaf looked at Marshmallow suspiciously for a few moments. Then curiosity got the better of him and he shrugged his own shoulders.

He hung his head low in disappointment.

"That wasn't fun at all." He said.

* * *

**I would like to point out that I initially intended for this entire chapter to be the _introduction _to the chapter, not pretty much the _entire_ chapter. It got away from me a bit...**


	29. A Checkup on Almost Everyone

**I would just like to point out that it is at this point in time that Chapter 11, "The Meeting" comes into play. As in, from here on out I'll probably be using those characters again since I said chapter 11 took place, "Several days later." Well, back in Arendelle, several days have passed since they met Isabella. So Hans and Philip return! yay!**

* * *

The morning had been mostly uneventful. Isabella arrived at the castle in the morning and they talked and giggled like best friends. They sat down to share breakfast, and when they were finished, Anna got an idea.

"Elsa! Let's go ice skating in the courtyard!"

Isabel's ears were perked at the mention of Elsa making a winter wonderland for them. Well, at the very least an ice rink.

"I don't know, Anna. I actually have responsibilities to Arendelle that-"

"Come on! Those can wait, can't they?" Anna interrupted.

"No, Anna, I'm afraid they can't. I guess I could try to get them all done before lunch. Maybe after lunch we could do it until my meeting with the council at three..."

Elsa continued working her schedule out in her head, but Anna and Isabel were already running through the doorway. Actually, _Anna_ was running out the doorway while _Isabel_ was being forcefully dragged through the halls behind her._  
_

"What are you doing?!" Isabel shouted, thoroughly confused at Anna actions.

"Elsa needs time to concentrate on her work, we're going to stay out of her hair until lunch."

"Where are we going?" Isabel asked.

"Kristoff's. I haven't seen him since we met you." Anna informed him.

They ran to Kristoff's small home outside the castle. They visited him for a long while. They got to know each other slightly better although Isabel still did not share any of her past.

* * *

Hans walked stealthily through the forests, making sure he was still being followed by that infernal bird. Sure enough, he found it sitting upon a branch shortly in front and above him. Angry, he began yelling at the bird.

"Hello! I assume you wanted to be discrete about this, but I've known for a while now! Since I left, actually!"

The bird squawked.

"What does that _mean_?! I don't speak _bird_!" An observer might have thought he was crazy._  
_

Another bird perched itself on a branch next to the other one. The first flew off.

_'Oh, I see. That's actually pretty smart. I need to be careful. He's watching me. Albeit, on a delay.'_

* * *

Philip slowly walked outside and looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. Once he was sure, he lifted his head to the sky and, using his power, released a loud howl. A call.

He sat and waited. They came. Many wolves, more than doubling the amount of people currently employed by the company. He explained to them what their duties would be, and sent them into the building each wolf finding someone to partner with. One wolf, one human. Every person inside found himself with a canine companion. All except one, his father. His father was going to get the best he could find. Philip ran into the woods to hunt for one final animal. He found a bird first, and from that bird he learned that Hans knew he was being spied on. Philip grabbed the bird roughly in his hands and told it to find the nearest volcano and fly into it before throwing it with all his strength into the air.

The bird seemed unfazed and quickly regained it control. It flew off to meet its master's request.

Eventually, Philip found the animal he was searching for, and he rode it back into his father's office.

* * *

The King was very much startled when the door into his office burst open. Even more startled when the grizzly bear walked through the doorway. Atop the grizzly, however, was his son. That calmed him. Slightly.

"Enjoy having command over a bear, father."

A smile spread across The King's lips.

"Oh, I think I will."

* * *

After lunch, Anna; Isabel; and Elsa all ran through the castle doors and into the courtyard. Anna was squealing happily, and Isabel was obviously excited although she made no noise indicating it.

Elsa's first action was to lift her dress up slightly. Just enough to reveal her feet and ankles. She lifted up her foot and stomped in onto the ground. A layer of ice spread across the courtyard, and Anna's giggles intensified. Isabel let loose a gasp as the ice quickly spread under her feet, and the ground she walked on now became slippery.

Elsa waved a hand, and some glowing snowflakes made their way down to Isabel's feet and formed ice skates that attached themselves to her shoes.

Elsa did the same for Anna.

Isabella seemed to be doing alright, she said she'd done it before, but Anna was still helpless on skates.

Anna laughed.

"If only Olaf was here to help me with this." She joked.

"Yeah." Elsa chuckled out. "I wonder what he and Marshmallow are up to."

"No idea." Anna said.

* * *

Olaf slowly walked up the stairs and towards the entrance to the ice palace. He slowly pushed open the door, being careful not to drop all the snowballs he'd crafted while outside. Once he was inside, however, her carefully dropped them into a single pile behind the door. He picked one up and studied it for a second before he threw it with all his might at Marshmallow's head. It struck him on the cheek. The snow giant brought his gaze to the snowman for a second, but then looked back at the gates into the palace.

"Come on!" Olaf yelled as he threw all the snowballs he'd formed at Marshmallow, hoping for some reaction.

He got none.

* * *

Anna and Elsa made several guesses as to what they were doing, all of them completely wrong of course, but they were snapped out of their imaginings by a shout from Isabel from across the courtyard.

"Guys! I don't know how to stop. Or turn." She was heading straight for one of the fountains.

Elsa gasped. Overreacting to the situation, she pushed Anna away and shot a stream of ice from each hand. The blast hit it's mark, and a giant hill made completely of snow formed immediately in front of Isabel. She crashed right into it. At least it was soft.

Elsa brought her attention back down to her sister, who had fallen onto her behind.

"Ow." Anna said as Elsa helped her to her feet.

"Sorry." Elsa apologized, but Anna was more concerned with Isabel.

"Isabella!" Anna yelled as she ran toward the pile of snow. On her way over she slipped a bit because of the ice, but she eventually made it over to the snow and helped Isabel out it.

"Are you okay?" Anna asked her friend.

"I'm okay." Isabel said to her. "I'm fine."

"Good." Anna said with a smile on her face.

"I'm so sorry!" Elsa said, running up behind Anna.

"It's fine, it was my fault." Said Isabel.

Elsa spoke up once more.

"I think we should take a break."

Everyone agreed.

They went back into the castle and waited a few hours before they ate and went their separate ways until the next day.

* * *

**On another note: I wrote several chapters over Easter since I have no life, and I was excited to be slightly ahead as that gave me more wiggle room to still upload a chapter even if I wasn't able to write one day, but I find myself very nervous about being this far ahead. You see, if I'm this far ahead and I make a huge mistake in my writing, I have many more chapters to rewrite, but if I'm up to date I only have one(or two if I actually decide to completely re-write the chapter I flubbed up on.) So, ENJOY THREE TOTAL CHAPTERS TODAY! **


	30. The Fire

**Because of the fact that the, "Anna regaining her memory" took for-freaking-ever, I'm just continuing on with the story. I wanted this story to be at least 30 chapters, and we are on the 30th Chapter. The story is winding down! I'm so excited! And sad. But! There will be at least one story after this. More if you guys really want there to be.**

* * *

Several days later...

Hans finally made his way back to Arendelle. He almost spit on the ground as soon as he walked into the kingdom. He was in here until he killed Isabella, then he would leave. He wanted to get that over with as soon as possible. It'd be done already if not for the fact that he had to _walk._ Corona was only a couple days away by boat, but Arendelle, nor any other kingdom, would allow him on their ferries. Four days a total traveling time by boat. By foot, almost four_teen._

Hans decided he would scout out a while as he searched for an opportunity to complete the job of killing the girl. She would almost certainly be staying with the queen and princess in the castle. He pulled his hood over his face, and walked into a nearby inn. He ordered a room and sat at the bar, hoping to hear rumors of the girl he was after.

He ordered a small glass of alcohol and waited. He heard nothing for a long while, and so he began to talk to the people surrounding him in the bar. He stealthily brought their discussions to the queen and other happenings in the kingdom, but got no good answers. That is, until the door of the small inn opened up and a group of three women entered the tavern. He turned toward them and couldn't decide whether or not to smile at his luck or throw a knife at each of them. He also contemplated doing both, but decided knifing the Queen of Arendelle in public would be unwise. Knifing _anyone _in public was probably unwise, especially the queen, and especially _in front of_ the queen.

So he simply decided he would wait until they left, and he would follow them when they did so as to, hopefully, find an opportunity to strike. His luck was even better than he innitially thought when he say the queen and princess leave without their friend.

_'She's staying here!' _He realized.

Hans then waited until the majority of the people inside the bar went back to their houses. He was actually surprised at how few people there were late in the night.

He had decided exactly how he would rid himself of the girl. He had heard from what the innkeeper had said that it was just him and one other tenant currently residing in the inn, and upon circling the outside of the building he noticed a room with a light coming through the window. He grabbed a bottle of alcohol and a box of matches.

He was about to ignite the fire until he was pinned against the wall by a man. It was dark, but the man seemed tall with dark eyes and dark hair which appeared to have a lighter stripe through it.

"Sorry, can't let you do that." He said to Hans.

"And why not?" Hans asked him.

"Besides it being illegal? I don't want harm brought to that girl." He answered.

"How are you going to stop me?" Hans asked.

"I already have." He said holding up the box of matches Hans had once had in his hand. Hans looked down to his other hand and noticed the bottle had cracked and the liquid inside had spilled to the ground. Hans looked from the man to the growing light in the window, noticing the trail of smoke that came through the window. Hans smiled.

The man brought his attention to the direction that Hans was looking.

"My work has been done for me, it seems." Hans said as he slipped into the darkness.

The man did nothing but stare at the fire until he calmly said.

"I should go get Elsa."

* * *

Isabel was having a nightmare. She'd had nightmares periodically since arriving in Arendelle, but none of them so far had had the consequences that this one had.

_Isabel was standing in the river, washing herself. She ducked underneath the water to better be able to wash her hair, but once she tried to come up, she felt nothing but the cold of ice against her as she tried to break the surface. She banged against the ice, desperately trying to get free so that she wouldn't have to face her worst fear. _

_Drowning._

Isabel tossed and turned in the bed, trying in vain to find comfort. She found none. In her dream she kept knocking against the ice in an attempt to free herself, but in reality, there was no barrier. Her hand shot out and knocked the candle that had once been on her nightstand down to the floor of the wooden building. Of course, the fire began to spread.

* * *

Elsa was shocked awake by the sound of her window open and a rush of wind blowing through her room. She frantically sat up and glanced around the room. Nothing but her furniture and an open window. Except of course the complete stranger standing by her door, staring at her.

It made her feel quite uncomfortable, understandably so.

The man slowly walked through the door making sure Elsa saw him do so.

She threw the covers off of herself and began to run after him. The man was fast, so Elsa threw up a wall of ice in front of him.

"Sorry, not gonna happen." He said as he brought his arms forward before crashing through the ice like glass.

She tried one last time. She made the ice thicker this time, but it didn't seem to have any effect. He crashed through it once again.

_'Okay, plan B.'_ Elsa thought as she sprouted skates on her slippers and made a small path of ice in front of her.

The man looked behind him to see that Elsa was _skating _towards him.

_'Clever girl.'_

Sadly, the man couldn't accept Elsa catching him, so he threw his arms back towards her and a wall of ice sprouted between them. Not thick enough that she couldn't brake through it, she could melt it even if it was, but thick enough to be a distraction and maybe mess up her skating.

Elsa stopped and widened her eyes. This man had just made an _ice wall_. He had magic. This only motivated her more to apprehend the intruder. She melted the ice and skated after him once more. In her distraction, she had let him gain a considerable lead on her. She barely saw him run into one of the rooms on his left. She smiled. There was no way he'd be able to get away. They were on the second floor, and there were no exits from that particular room. She ran in after him to find that the room was empty, and the window was open. She looked out the window, but saw no sign of him. What she did see, however was a fire. She brought a hand forward and made an icy slide to give her a quick escape into the outside world. She quickly formed an ice dress over her night gown so as to look a bit more presentable. She got rid of her slippers for more acceptable ice-based footwear as well.

She approached the flaming building, recognizing that it was the inn where she had arranged for Isabel to live for the time being. Her first priority was in finding he friend. She looked around, making sure Isabel wasn't outside. She was. Elsa ran to make sure her friend was alright. She saw her intruder a short distance away from the body.

He smiled at her and brought to fingers to his forehead in a casual salute before he walked into the shadows of an alley. Elsa tore her eyes from him and forced herself to look at the fire. She brought a hand up and nervously shot her ice towards it. Pain soared through her body as her ice hit the flames.

_'One option left.'_ She thought as she turned back to the alley and pursued the stranger. It didn't take long for her to find him; he hadn't ran very far.

"Were you _waiting_ for me?" She asked him.

"I was _testing _you and waiting to see if you passed. You didn't, but that's no big deal." He answered.

"Did you _start_ that fire?!" Elsa's rage was building.

"No, the fire was not my doing, but I felt it was a good time to see everything you knew about your ice... not as much as I was hoping."

"I know I'm weak to fire."

"That's precisely it, Elsa. You're not weak to fire."

Elsa narrowed her eyes at the man in front of her while giving him a confused look.

"Um... yes, I am. I throw my ice on the flames and it burns like hell. Also, call me queen."

"I've clearly gotten on your bad side if you're telling me to call you by your title," He bowed. "Your majesty."

"Perhaps it's a bit unmerited as you did save Isabel, am I right?"

"Yes. Well, I wouldn't say I _saved _her, but I did bring her out of the fire."

"Why?" She asked.

"Because I'm a descent person."

"You didn't attempt to extinguish the flames."

"I'm not _that_ descent." He told her.

"Should you be stopping the fire?" He asked.

"I _can't_." She replied.

"Your majesty, how do you extinguish a fire?" He asked.

"You throw water on it, among other things." She answered.

"And what, my queen, is water but thawed ice?"

Elsa smiled as she turned around and ran back toward the burning building.

She raised her hands above her head and summoned a large block of ice to form directly over the building.

"No! Your majesty, I beck of ya-" The innkeeper didn't finish his pleads before Elsa willed the ice to melt and flood the inn with water, leaving most of the flames doused. She ran in to make sure they were all gone. She walked into Isabel's room to find that her candle had been knocked onto the ground. She frowned at it and brought it back to the top of the table. The table, already weakened from the fire, succumbed to the added weight of the candle blackened with ash.

She walked out of the room and was shocked to find the strange man waiting for her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked after letting out a small shout of surprise.

"Suggesting that the girl stay in your castle from now on." He told her.

She raised an eyebrow.

"It's made of stone." He answered her unspoken question of "why."

"Why does that make a difference?" She asked.

"She likely will be more willing to give up her solitude than give up her light."

"How did you get up here?"

"Magic." He answered, and she believed him.

"You made an ice wall."

"So I did." He said smiling.

"So then there are others with powers?" she asked hopefully.

He let out a laugh.

"More than you realize." The man said before he began to walk out of the window.

"Will I see you again?" She asked her final question.

"Are you asking to?" He responded.

She blushed and turned her head from him so that he would not see. When she looked back, however, he was gone."

* * *

**Oh my gosh! Who was that?! Now that I've (sort of) introduced that character allow me to provide for you a very heartfelt apology. You see, my first story (A Queen's Nightmares) was simply a prologue to this one as well as my next, but these _three_ stories (A Queens Nightmares, The Hooded Stranger, and (I think I'll call it) Hunted(A bit of a deceiving name. I might try to think of a better one.) are simply _teasers_ for my stories after these ones. Sadly, you might never get to see that character in all his glory because I might get _BORED._ How sad would that be?  
**


	31. Chocolate

**Super special thanks to both Alese222 and my brain for working together to make this... interesting chapter. Well, Alese222 for the basic idea and my brain for all the weirder parts. TEAM WORK! YEAH!**

* * *

Hans sat on a tree branch overlooking the castle. He had been spying for a few days now; he was trying to find an opportunity to infiltrate the castle and strike. He didn't care anymore who it got traced back to, he wanted this job done so he could get out of this blasted kingdom. He heard something next to him.

His gaze glanced to his left.

"I had almost thought I'd lucked out tonight." Hans said to the man just left of him.

"Well, I would have missed our midnight chats." He said to Hans.

Hans rolled his eyes and continued his stakeout.

"This is more than slightly creepy. I just felt like you should know that." The man said.

"You say that every night." Hans replied

"It's creepy every night." He said.

* * *

Isabel, Anna, and Elsa sat in silence, Anna and Elsa bearing faces of excitement. and Isabel with an uncertain one.

It was a few minutes of dead silence until there was a knock at the door.

Anna squealed and leaped up to answer the door. She took the large plate the servant offered her and closed the door after he'd left.

"And I present to you" Anna put in a dramatic pause before she lifted the lid of the plate to reveal an almost ridiculous amount of "chocolate!"

Anna and Elsa both giggled, but Isabel let out a sigh.

"So, this is the dessert you promised?" She asked.

"Is it just me or does she sound... _disappointed_?" Anna asked her sister.

"I'm just not all that big of a fan of chocolate." Isabel answered.

Harsh gasps came out of the mouths of the royals present in the room.

"How do you _not _like chocolate?!" Elsa asked, shocked at her new information.

"It's a bit too... melty." She answered.

"That's not a word." Elsa took a piece of the delicious treat and brought it to her lips, moaning in delight at the wonderful taste.

Anna, who had already stuffed three into her mouth, held out her chocolate covered hands to the two girls.

"She's right though, they are slightly melty." Anna said with her mouth full. She quickly swallowed the sweets and licked her fingers clean.

"I haven't had a problem." Elsa said.

"Yeah, Miss Ice Hands." Isabel pointed out.

Elsa shrugged her shoulders before critiquing Isabel observation.

"Queen Ice Hands."

Anna shoved a few more pieces into her mouth.

"Anna!" Elsa said harshly. "Pace yourself! I've had one piece. how many have you had?"

Anna brought one hand behind her back and put up her left hand with four fingers held up.

"And I assume on your other hand you have all five fingers held up?" Elsa said, noticing Anna's hidden hand.

Anna nodded slowly.

"Do you want me to _tell_ you how ridiculous that is, or do you already know?" Elsa asked.

"I know how ridiculous it is, but it doesn't matter because chocolate is amazing!" Anna said shove another piece past her lips.

Elsa sighed and grabbed another piece herself. She turned her attention to Isabel.

"Are you sure you don't want one?" Elsa scowled at Anna. "They're going fast."

Isabel walked over to the table upon which the plate of chocolates sat. she brought her hand out and grabbed a piece of the brown sweets. She brought it to her mouth and nibbled a small chunk off and sucked on it until it was all melted in her mouth.

"That's actually really good!" The girl informed the others as if they didn't already know.

"No, ya can't eat it like that!" Anna slurred her speech slightly as she waddled over and grabbed the piece from Isabel's hand and shoved it into her mouth along with another piece.

"Anna!" Elsa scolded.

"What?" Anna's eyes were on everything _but_Elsa as she responded to her sister.

"Are you okay?" Elsa asked both of them as Isabel seemed to be slightly uncomfortable, and Anna was obviously not her usual self.

"I think someone put alcohol in the chocolate. I'll be right back." Isabel said before she ran out of the room.

"Someone put alcohol in the chocolate?!" Elsa exclaimed as a seemingly drunk Anna leaned lightly against her shoulder, petting her own hair slowly.

* * *

"You put alcohol in the chocolate?!" The man asked Hans.

Hans was about to respond when another voiced sounded out in the darkness.

"Of course he didn't. You think they would let _him_ into the castle? I did." The voice belonged to Philip. He slowly climbed up the tree already shared by two men, and grabbed a third branch that would, in all likelihood, support his weight.

"Why would you put alcohol in their chocolate?!" The man asked Philip incredulously.

"I made a bet with a squirrel. Now shush." Philip said bringing his eyes to the scene through the window.

"What?" The man asked Philip.

"I made a bet with a squirrel." Philip said before he brought his index finger to his lips and then nodded his head toward the window.

"What?"

"I made a bet with a squirrel that I could get the queen drunk. I almost won, but Anna had to stuff her her face." Philip's head sunk for a few seconds before he perked up slightly.

"Someone kill Elsa!"

The man looked exasperated at Philip while Hans momentarily considered a second attempt. Not because of the bet. Just because he would be pretty pleased to see the queen dead, and Anna as queen would be disastrous to Arendelle.

* * *

In a few minutes Isabel walked back into the room rubbing her forehead.

"Got a hangover already?" Anna asked. she burped and slowly began to lean backwards. Elsa quickly grabbed her sister before she could fall over.

Anna got a big grin on her face.

"Let's play spin the bottle!" She yelled.

"Anna, we-" Elsa tried to speak calmly to Anna, but Anna interrupted her.

"I know. We don't have a bottle, but we can play spin the book!" Anna said as she ran to the bookshelf in the room. She grabbed a rather large one and ran back to the table. She moved the alcoholic chocolate to the couch and placed the book on the table. She sank down to her knees in front of the table and attempted to spin the book. It didn't spin much, only about two inches. A look of intense disappointment fell upon Anna's face, but that didn't last long.

Anna got an excited look on her face and she began running in circles around the table, shouting "Weeeeeeeee."

Elsa and Isabel where both completely taken aback.

Eventually Anna ceased the strange scene. She shot a finger out to point at Elsa.

"The book is pointing at you, Elsa!" Anna cried as she ran to her sister.

"I'm not kissing you, Anna."

"NO! That's spin the bottle! Does that look like a bottle?" Anna asked gesturing to the book. "No, That's a book. This is spin the book."

Elsa looked utterly confused. Anna gestured to Isabel.

"_You_ know what to do." She told the girl.

Elsa passed a questioning glance to Isabel. Isabel smiled at Elsa, amused by the situation.

"I like drunk Anna."

"What do I have to do Anna?" Elsa asked her.

"Ugh. Do I have to spell everything out?" Anna waddled over to the desk in the room and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. She dipped the pen in the ink and scribbled seven letters unto the paper.

Elsa and Isabel glanced at the crudely drawn capital C, H, I, C, K, E, and N.

"Anna that spells chicken."

"Where?!"

* * *

"DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE THIS REACTION TO ALCOHOL?! I NEED TO KNOW!" The man was clearly excited by this new discovery.

"Shut up, idiot. You'll get us caught." Hans said to him.

"I have a new goal in life. I need to be best friends with Anna. She will never be sober in my presence. ...That's slightly creepy."

"I didn't think I put _that_ much alcohol in the chocolate." Philip said looking at Anna stumbling around the room, looking as though she'd had almost literally a ton of the stuff. "Maybe she'd just tired?"

"If that's the case, I will be her best friend, and she will never sleep in my presence. ...That's even more creepy. Although, that's not as creepy as spying on three young women through a window." The man accused Hans.

"What have you been doing the whole time you've been here?" Hans asked.

"Ooooh! Burn." Philip said in response to Hans's question.

"You've been doing the same thing!" The man pointed out.

"Ooooh! Burn." Philip said in response to the man's rebuttal.

* * *

"I... think it's time we got to bed." Elsa said as Anna began to try to to walk up the wall.

"Anna, that's not going to work." Isabel told her.

"Elsa can shoot ice, I can walk on walls." Anna said.

Elsa slowly picked Anna up from the floor and guided her out the door; through the halls; and to her room.

On their way, Anna grabbed a vase from a table in the hall and placed it on her head like a hat. They walked a short way like this, but Elsa cringed when she heard the vase hit the floor and shattered. Anna grabbed for another one, but Elsa took it out of her hands and placed it back on the table.

Anna pouted at Elsa.

Elsa, guiding Anna, made it to Anna's room and Elsa tucked her in. Elsa spun in a circle, hand out, forming a thick layer of ice over everything in the room except for Anna and her bed.

"Just so she can't hurt herself or damage anything else." Elsa said before she went to the bed, planted a small kiss on Anna's cheek and walked out of the room.

She helped clean up the broken vase and said goodnight to Isabel before retiring to her own room for the night.

* * *

The man had left the company of Hans and Philip to try and find some way we could experience or witness Anna's drunken state.

The two remaining men continued to observe the castle for a short while before Philip broke the silence.

"Shouldn't we be trying to kill him?"

Hans shrugged his shoulders.

* * *

**Please... just... don't ask where this came from. Because _I_**** don't even know.**


	32. Starting Positions

**Okay, so I hope this doesn't piss anybody off, (I also hope my wording doesn't piss anybody off either, but I rated this T for a reason. That's right, I rated my stories for my, "Author's Notes" sections. Just kidding, by now you've read the sexual jokes, and I plan to/already have had swearing. Plus I wanted to play it safe. Who even pays attention to ratings anyway?) but I've skipped several months from last chapter to this one. I have some reasons for doing so and will explain all of them to you.**

**1. I was getting kind of bored of this story and wanted to cut to the end.**

**The past many chapters have been filler anyway.**

**However, having this kind of time gap means that there will be references to things that happened over the course of this time gap. Don't worry! I'll get to the events and they won't be spoiled during this story, and them being reference should not damper your enjoyment. It just might be slightly confusing.**

**"But 0hSnap10! When will you cover these events?" I hear you asking. Yes. I HEAR you asking questions over the internet. **

**The answer to that question gets me into my plans for future fanfictions, and here they are! (Please note that at any moment, I might get bored and stop writing, but)**

**I plan to have two universes: "The Passtale Universe" (since I don't plan for her to play any role in the other universe.) and "The Curse Universe" or "The Cursed Universe" **

**"The Passtale Universe" has six stories in it: Frozen, A Queen's Nightmares, The Hooded Stranger, Hunted(Not the official name as of yet, but I also said that about "The Hooded Stranger" and look how that turned out.), *Name Contains Spoilers*, and *Name Also Contains Spoilers.**

**I plan of making "*Name Contains Spoilers*" a series of one-shot/one-shot-ish stories. These will take place ranging from before the events of Frozen to after the events of "*Name Also Contains Spoilers*," and while I have a few short stories I have in mind to do, I would also be taking requests from YOU. Yes, you. I'm pointing right at you, who else would I be talking to? come on.**

* * *

Kristoff walked across the ice and began to saw through it. Ice harvesting was a difficult and time-consuming task, but it was also what he liked to do. If he didn't like it, he wouldn't have spent most of his life doing it. He had always enjoyed doing it, but he didn't quite realize how boring of a task it could be without Anna. She joined him on his first trek back up the mountain after the great freeze and, barring a few absences here and there, had joined him every time since. Until, of course, they went to the ice palace and found Isabel on their way home. After that, Anna ceased going up with him to harvest ice. He didn't feel unloved by Anna since she stopped going up with him; there was no question in his mind that they were still going very strong, but it was very lonely without Anna giggling with Olaf, or trying to help but failing miserably, or trying to help but him not letting her and her pouts afterwords.

He slowly looked up from his work, not realizing how much he'd actually gotten done or how high the sun had gotten.

He'd come out very early in the morning so that he could make it back to the castle by dinner. In his mindless work, it seemed as though he'd actually worked much faster than he'd initially planned for himself. He might actually be able to get back shortly after lunch!

After a couple more hours of working and thinking about Anna to stave off the boredom, Kristoff finished his job and packed everything up to head back down to the mountains.

* * *

Isabel was having that dream again. The same one she'd been having for months now. She wouldn't exactly call it a nightmare, but it certainly wasn't pleasant... _at first..._

_She was standing next to the river, as she always did before the great freeze set in. She was cooking her food over a small fire, waiting for the fish to get to the perfect condition for her to be able to eat it._

_A rustling sounded to her right. She glanced into the forest looking for whatever made that noise. She just noticed that it was incredibly hot all around her, and she hated it. Slowly, two figures walked out from the shadow of the trees. She recognized them as Elsa and Anna. They both had small clouds raining snow upon them. She greeted them and asked Elsa to help her escape the heat too, but Elsa refused. For several minutes, the sisters, mainly Elsa considering she was the one with powers, teased Isabel with small bits of cold temperatues, but they never supplied relief from the intense heat. Isabel was getting very irked by the actions of the sisters._

_Isabel thought she was going to faint. She wasn't one to complain about temperatures ever. Cold wasn't a particular problem and neither was heat. But this heat was not even remotely in the realm of natural temperatures. She always preferred to feel more cold than hot, and now she was very _very_ hot. Elsa and Anna taunted her once more with the cold they both enjoyed but refused Isabel, and she snapped._

_Isabel rushed towards Anna and thrust a dagger she didn't realize she was holding straight through the princess's heart. Elsa was paralyzed by the sudden end of her sister's life. She cried for a long while, but Isabel didn't care about that. With Elsa's emotions completely haywire, her magic was released and Isabel found herself in a winter wonderland, albeit a slightly violent winter. She didn't care though, she sledded and skated and made snowpeople and snow angels. And the fun just didn't stop. She didn't care that Anna had died, nor had she cared that Elsa was lying next to Anna's dead body, crying up a literal storm all around them._

Isabel awoke from her dream. She knew she should have been seriously disturbed by her dream, but after months of having the same dream over and over again, she became desensitized to it.

* * *

Hans knocked on the door and once again tried the handle. There was still no response, and the door was still locked.

Philip had told him months ago that the king no longer wanted him trying to deal with Isabel and had a new assignment for him. Hans made the trek back to their base in Corona, but the king wasn't there and neither was _anyone else. _Hans had nowhere else to go, so he simply stayed there and waited for the door to unlock; for him to hear a response from the other side of the door; or someone to come back. Eventually Philip did.

"I see you're here, Hans." Philip greeted him.

Hans was furious.

"I've been here since you told me come back when we were in Arendelle!" Hans yelled at him.

"Hey, that is no way to talk to me Hansy." Philip said smiling while fumbling with a key to unlock the door to The King's office.

"I swear, I will cut out your throat." Hans said, reacting to the nickname Philip had just given him. "Where were you?"

"I had some business to attend to, but I'm back now." Philip finally got the door unlocked and opened.

"Let's discuss this further... in my office." Philip said gesturing for Hans to walk through the doorway.

"Your office?" Hans asked as he followed in the direction Philip was gesturing.

What Hans saw when he entered the room nearly made him vomit. There was a grizzly bear sitting on the couch.

But above the grizzly bear, staked to the wall was the body of the old king. His corpse was bloodied and broken, limbs bent unnaturally. The vision sent a shiver down his spine.

"Do you like my trophy?" Philip asked, apparently unshaken by the corpse mounted on the wall.

"Everyone is okay with this?!" Hans asked, still extremely disgusted at the sight, but he couldn't take his eyes off of it.

"Of course not, it's just you and me now." Hans's eyes widened at Philip's words.

"I didn't kill them, fool." Philip said, knowing what Hans must have been thinking based on his expression.

"You said The King had a new job for me?" Hans asked.

"Yes, I was referring to myself, and I do." Philip answered his question just for him to ask another.

"Why didn't you just tell me what it was back in Arendelle?"

"Because I wanted to show you this!" Philip said raising his arms to point outward and around his new home. He once again brought his eyes to the mounted body and smiled.

"What is my new job then?" Hans asked one more question.

"I want you to kill Queen Elsa of Arendelle." Philip said. He smiled at the initial happiness Hans's face showed at his request before it soured as Hans asked another question.

"Is this about the bet?!"

"Of course not! I killed the squirrel. The way I see it, we're even."

"Then why?"

"That's for me to know and you to find out. However, I don't just want you to kill the queen. I want you to kill Anna and Kristoff as well."

"I refuse to do this until you tell me why." Hans demanded.

"I was hoping we could do this the easy way, but apparently I have to do this the easier way." Philip said as he walked slowly over to Hans.

Philip put his hands on Hans's shoulders and closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them up again, they glowed a bright blue as opposed to their usual black.

"I want you to kill Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff. I don't care when you do it or how you do it or if you get caught doing it, but I want all of them dead. Do you understand?" Philip closed his eyes after Hans nodded.

When he opened them back up he took a step back, slightly dazed; slightly confused; and slightly in pain.

"There," He groaned. "The easier way."

* * *

"Your majesty, you have a visitor." One of the servants informed Elsa. "He's waiting in the throne room."

The servant left before Elsa could question who it was.

Elsa stepped gracefully through the doors that led into the throne room. She saw a man with brown eyes and black hair that had a white stripe off to the left of his face. The hair went just below his ears. He was a hair taller than Elsa, and were it not for the fact that Elsa hated this man's guts right now, Elsa would have said he was pretty attractive.

"You." She said coldly.

"Okay, I know you want nothing more than to have me thrown out, but I'm sorry, and I have something to tell you." He threw those words out of his mouth at a nearly blinding pace.

"Darn right I want nothing more than to have you thrown out!" That was all Elsa seemed to hear out of the man's opening statements.

"I have to tell you something first. I have it good authority that you, Anna, and Isabel are in danger." The man told her.

"Who's authority?" The queen demanded.

"... my own." He said sheepishly.

"Interesting, well. Isabel hates you; I hate you; and Anna _should_ hate you, so I don't think your authority is a very good one." Elsa told him.

"Anna doesn't hate me?" He asked.

"Well, she likely can't remember anything because you got her drunk, but either way, no. She doesn't hate you."

"I don't think you should discredit me based on your personal opinions of me." The man pointed out.

"Okay well, let's look at everything you've done, shall we? You sneaked into my bedroom; entered my castle uninvited; got Anna drunk for your own entertainment; and did something else to Isabel that she won't tell me because she doesn't tell me any of what happened in her life with the exception of just before she arrived in Arendelle."

"So, In conclusion, you're not listening to me." He said.

"Get out before I have the guards throw you out." Elsa threatened.

"You can't do that." He told her.

"I am the Queen of Arendelle, and I have more than enough reason to throw you in the dungeon for a _very long_ time. I suggest you take my mercy and cease telling me what I can and can't do, Andrew."

"I swore an oath to myself to do everything in my power to protect you three, and that is what I'm trying to do!" He said.

"I haven't experienced your protection. You lead me into a fire!"

"I also told you how to put it out." Elsa shrugged that off.

"Was getting Anna drunk a part of your 'protection?'" She asked sarcastically.

"Okay, I admit it. That was for my own personal enjoyment." Andrew stated.

"Out." Elsa told him for the last time.

"Very well, but don't say I didn't try to warn you. I would suggest you inspect your appointed officials, Elsa." He bowed and began to leave.

Elsa considered tripping him with her ice on his way out, but she decided against it.

* * *

**By the way, "Guy Who Led Elsa to Fire" = "Guy With Hans and Philip" = "Andrew"**


	33. Up The Mountain

**Mwahaha! I'm back! Sorry for the delay. I had my life to attend to for a few days, but I got rid of that pretty quickly. I'm back to writing! WOOOOOOOO!**

* * *

Anna was jumping around, just waiting for Isabel to walk out her door. The moment she did, Anna grabbed her arm roughly and ran down the halls. It had been a long time since Anna hadn't been this excitable around her for a while. They ran down the halls and got into the dinning room to share breakfast. After a while of Anna's strange attachment to her, Isabel had to ask the question.

"Kristoff is out ice harvesting isn't he?"

"Yes, and it's been so boring here lately. No offense, but the initial excitement of you being here has faded slightly." Anna said.

"So then, why were you all excited when I came out of the bedroom?"

"You're company."

The was a small pause while each of them finished eating. Once they were done, Anna asked Isabel a question.

"What do you want to do today?"

"You are the one who seems incredibly excited to do something, why don't you choose?" Isabel responded.

"Well... it's been a while since I've gone to the ice palace, but we'd have to wait for Elsa." Anna answered after a few moments of thought.

"Why? Let's go now, and I'll leave a note for Elsa. She can meet us there. I have an idea." Isabel said. Anna followed as Isabel found her way through the castle for quite possibly the first time. Isabel left the note for Elsa while Anna got the horses ready.

By the time Isabel was finished, so was Anna. They rode off together in silence.

* * *

In a few hours, they made it to the palace.

"So, what do you want to do now?" Anna asked.

"Wait for Elsa." Came Isabel's response.

"What? That's it?" Asked Anna, confused at boring plan Isabel had proposed.

"Yep." Isabel said as a grin appeared on her face. "This is going to be fun."

"You don't want to talk or anything?" Anna asked.

"We can talk, but I'm just warning you that I'm keeping you next to me and my eyes on the door." Isabel answered.

"Okay."

* * *

After Elsa's stressful confrontation with Andrew, she attempted to locate Anna and Isabel, but she couldn't. She asked around, but no one had seen them since breakfast. She walked into her room and let her emotions free. With her letting her emotions out, she also let out her powers. Ice formed everywhere around her, cold wind blew fiercely, and clouds formed at the ceiling and let loose a blizzard localized in her room. Fierce winds disturbed pretty much everything in the room. Books sitting out were sliding across the surfaces they were placed upon, other smaller objects that had once been on tables and other surfaces were now on the ground, and Elsa's bed was quickly becoming unmade by the winds.

Something caught Elsa's attention. Most of the things in the room were heavy enough to simply roll or slide around in the wind, but swirling a few feet above Elsa's head, there was a small slip of paper. Elsa willed the storm to slow down. She forced love to take the place of fear and the wind slowed and the snow stopped. The piece of paper swiftly descended to the ground. Elsa melted the snow before the paper would hit it and potentially become ruined by the snow.

She walked to the paper and descended to one knee. Elsa picked up the piece of paper and noticed that it was from Isabel.

_"Elsa,_

_Anna and I decided to go up the North Mountain to the ice palace. Don't blame Anna, she said we should wait for you, but I insisted we leave right away. We'll be waiting for you!_

_-Isabella"_

Elsa folded the note before placing it on her desk and running out to the stables, not wanting to keep her sister and friend waiting longer than she already had.

She ran into Olaf along the way.

"Hey Elsa! What's the rush?" The snowman questioned.

"Anna and Isabel are up at the ice palace, and I don't want to keep them waiting more than I already have." The queen answered him.

"Ooh! I want to go to the palace. It's been a while since I've been there. I can go with you and keep you company on the way up!"

"No, Olaf. Kristoff is out ice harvesting. You need to stay here and wait for him. Once he gets back, tell him where we are." Elsa instructed.

"Okay." The snowman agreed.

Elsa started to turn back and continue her trek to the stables to collect her horse, but she turned back to Olaf first and told him one last thing.

"When Kristoff comes back and you tell him where we are- You'll do that right?" Elsa waited until Olaf softly nodded his head at Elsa's question. "-tell him not to come up, and you shouldn't come up either. We'll probably be on our way back by then." Elsa told him, and he nodded one last time before Elsa finally turned for the last time and journeyed to the stables.

One of the servants there quickly prepared her horse for the journey.

Elsa swiftly mounted the horse and rode through the castle gates. The horse galloped over the bridge that connected the castle with the rest of the kingdom. She greeted the subjects she passed with a warm smile. She almost took the shortcut over the waters, but she was afraid her horse wouldn't appreciate her riding it over a slick sheet of ice formed atop the water.

That was the excuse she was prepared to tell anyone who asked, but in truth, Elsa had been weary of the water ever since the incident with Hans. She wasn't _afraid_ of the water. She would just... avoid it if it was easy to do so.

When Elsa reached the outskirts of the kingdom, she was forced by the rough terrain to slow her horse's pace.

After a while, Elsa passed by Anna and Isabel's horses running back to the kingdom.

After wondering briefly why the horses would have been able to run back, there was a stable after all, Elsa had just one thought.

_'Great. __We're walking back.'_

* * *

Kristoff packed the sled up of all the ice he'd harvested as well as the supplies he'd brought with him. He mounted the sled and commanded Sven forward. Back down the mountain to surprise the girls. He imagined their responses.

Isabel likely wouldn't care; Anna would probably tackle him with a hug and kisses, he blushed at that thought; and Elsa would laugh at the scene Anna would create. That generally seemed to be how Kristoff's relationship with the girls was as of late.

Kristoff saw motion out of the corner of his eye. A white streak had rushed past him. He turned fully to see Elsa in her light blue dress riding her white stallion up the mountain. He stared confused for a few moments. By the time he shook himself of that, Elsa was long gone, and Kristoff had missed his opportunity to interrogate the queen.

More motion caught his eye. A small white figure composed mainly of three large snowballs was waddling after the queen but was quite far behind and was also losing ground on her. His eyes lit up when he saw Kristoff.

"HI!" He yelled to Kristoff as he waddled over to the blond.

"Olaf, what's going on?" Kristoff asked the snowman.

"Isabel and Anna went to the ice palace, and Elsa went after them. She told me to stay at the palace in case you came back before she got back." Olaf said.

"Why didn't you do that?" Kristoff raised an eyebrow at the snowman.

"Because I knew that once you got back, you'd want to go up to the ice palace and it wouldn't matter that Elsa told me to tell you not to." Kristoff had to admit it, Olaf was right. "I figured I'd save time if I met you half way. I also wanted to keep an eye on Elsa. She doesn't take guards with her, but she doesn't like using her powers violently, not even in self-defense." Olaf explained.

"And you would be such a huge help in defending her?" Kristoff had lowered his eyebrow to hear the snowman's explanation, but it was back up in skepticism.

"I can't be killed by anything except heat." Olaf explained. "I might not be that useful, but I can be a distraction."

The seemed to satisfy Kristoff. That is, until he realized another hole in the snowman's plan.

"What if we didn't end up meeting up?" He asked.

Olaf thought for a minute.

"I hadn't thought about that, but now that I have, I think you would have deducted that we went to the ice palace and followed us there. Elsa wouldn't get mad at me. What would she do to someone who can't feel pain?"

"So are we going or what?" Olaf asked Kristoff.

"we're going." He answered.

Olaf beamed and leaped onto Sven's back. He took his left arm in his right and brought it up as though it was a sword.

"Onward and upward. To the ice palace." He announced. Kristoff smiled and shook his head before getting back into the sled and directing Sven to follow Elsa.


	34. A Friendly Reunion

Marshmallow sat in silence on the top floor of the ice palace. He always preferred to be alone. He was born from the desire of isolation, and that is where he felt the most comfortable. Well, he felt the most comfortable when Elsa was in the castle, but besides that, he was the most comfortable when he was alone which is why when he heard Isabel and Anna enter the palace he didn't make any attempt to greet them. If they came, Elsa would likely come too. He would wait for her. He felt himself perk up. Apparently he was next most comfortable when Anna was near. It made sense, he came from Elsa, and Elsa loved Anna and felt most comfortable around her.

It was such a stark contrast between Olaf and himself. Olaf was born from Elsa's freedom, Marshmallow from her self captivity. Olaf from Elsa's love, Marshmallow from her fear. Olaf was a reflection of Elsa's childhood, Marshmallow was from her more adult life. Olaf is also a reflection of Anna herself while Marshmallow is a reflection of Elsa. Granted, they're all thrown to the extremes. Elsa and Anna get along swimmingly since they're still fairly similar. Olaf is white, Anna is light gray, Elsa is dark gray, and Marshmallow is black. He got his self-deprecation from her too.

Marshmallow waited in a very patient silence for either Elsa to arrive or else for Isabel and Anna to leave. He heard the door into the palace open up, and he actually got excited. He went to go and greet his, "mama."

* * *

Elsa brought her horse into the stables and tied it in one of the stalls. Sadly, the stables hadn't been used much, but they were very handy when they were used.

She walked onto the ice staircase and slowly brought her hand to the part of the staircase that had been broken by Hans and repaired by her. It had an ever-so-slight discoloration. You could see the border between the original staircase and the patch job Elsa had performed when they had visited the palace for the first time since the great freeze. Elsa had performed similar patch jobs on the chandelier in the palace as well as the doors out onto the balcony. If you didn't know that anything was different, you might not notice that anything was different; however, close inspection would reveal that the original shined much brighter than the patches Elsa supplied. Also the color in the original was a bit more pearly in color than the patches as well.

Elsa finally walked through the doors of the palace and walked into the main room. There, in the center, stood Isabel and Anna. They quickly brought their attention to the newcomer and smiled warmly. Well, Anna smiled warmly. Isabel seemed to be smiling rather wickedly.

Before either of the sisters could react or even register that something might have been off about the girl, Isabella grabbed Anna's arms and pinned them behind her back.

"Wait, what?" The sister both stood heavily confused a the current situation.

"Hello, Elsa. How are you doing?" Isabella said in a deep voice.

"What are you doing?" Elsa was still taken aback by Isabella's apparent change in character.

"Right, I should probably explain myself." Isabella chuckled. "I want you to freeze everything. Once you do, I'll let Anna go unharmed."

"Oh, come on!" Anna cried out. "Why am _I_ always the one who gets stabbed in the back?!"

Isabella tightened her grip on Anna.

"Who's not taking things seriously now, Anna?" She asked.

"I can't." Elsa finally said after a while of silence.

Anna and Isabella brought their attention to the queen.

"What do you mean? You did it before!" Isabel observed.

"It was an accident. My emotions were all over the place at the time. Plus, I had been holding my powers in for years. I had never been at that level of strength in my ice before, and I haven't experienced it since."

"You're emotions were all over the place, eh? What if I killed Anna? Would that enable you to freeze everything again? It did in my dreams." Isabel said.

"You can't." Elsa said, a look of fear and anguish coming to her face.

"Unlike you're ability to freeze Arendelle, I actually _can._" Isabella said with a satisfied grin.

The palace walls and floor began to transition to a purplish red.

A tear slowly formed in Elsa's eye and began sliding down her face. She slowly nodded her head.

"Wait, what does that mea-" Isabella was cut off by a white claw backhanding her into a wall. She collapsed onto her knees.

Anna ran over to Elsa and hugged her tightly.

Isabella began slowly rising to her feet, laughing softly.

Elsa quickly shot her hand out to Isabella to form an ice prison to keep Isabella in.

_'Finally.'_ Isabella thought as she shot out her hand in response to Elsa. Fire erupted from her fingertips and intercepted Elsa's ice. Elsa double over, the pain of the fire being multiplied by the shock of it. Marshmallow once again brought a claw at Isabella, but this time, he grabbed the girl in his hand such that she could not move her arms or legs.

* * *

Olaf and Kristoff weren't too far behind Elsa. They had been forced to take the trip a little bit more slowly than Elsa would have because Sven was also carrying Kristoff's harvested ice as well as Olaf and him. Olaf began prancing into the palace, but before he could get there, Kristoff stopped him.

"What?" Olaf asked innocently.

"I just... I don't know. I have a bad feeling." Kristoff said.

The slowly walked through the doors. The scene before him had Kristoff widen his eyes and swiftly cover Olaf's mouth as they got into a hiding position.

"Whisper. _At most._" Kristoff said to Olaf.

"What's going on?" Olaf mouthed. Kristoff couldn't understand what the Snowman was saying, but he knew him well enough to make an informed guess.

"I don't know." He said quietly. "It seems like Elsa and Anna are in trouble, but I want to hang back for a little while to make sure. Also, to form a plan."

To Kristoff's luck, no one had noticed him and Olaf slip into the palace. Elsa and Anna had had their backs turned to the small party, and Marshmallow and Isabella were too distracted by each other to notice them.

* * *

Isabella was stuck. She struggled against the strength of the creature that was currently almost crushing her but to no avail. In a sort of last resort, she willed the air around the beast to heat up sharply. Marshmallow quickly became uncomfortable. He had always been in the high altitude of the North Mountain's peak such that even this mild temperature, relative to Arendelle's summers, had him unwittingly loosen his grip. She slipped out of the giant's grasp and hopped to her feet. She brought a ball of fire to the chest of the giant snowman and the force of it knocked him onto his back.

Isabella walked almost tauntingly toward Anna. Elsa knew she couldn't stop her, but she had to protect her sister. Elsa shot another blast of ice at the apparent fire elemental. In response, she threw up a fire wall which evaporated the ice before it could get anywhere near close enough to really be effectual at all.

Isabella's apathy in blocking Elsa's attack only made Elsa's pain worse. Not only was she torturing herself by firing her magic against Isabella, but Elsa wasn't breaking a sweat in getting the upper hand.

Granted, Elsa wasn't sweating either, perk of being immune to extreme temperatures, but that was beside the point.

All that mattered now was that Marshmallow was on his back; she was doubled over in pain; and both were powerless to do anything as an equally powerless Anna was backed into a corner by Isabella.

She swiftly conjured a fireball in her hand, and she began to throw it forward.

* * *

**Did I really call this chapter "A Friendly Reunion?" Yes. I lied. I couldn't pass the opportunity to lie to you guys, and I'm sorry. _I will never happen again._ Nope. Couldn't keep a straight face.**

**Okay, now that I've gotten the "twist" out of the way, a couple of questions.**

**1st, how obvious was this? I felt like I might have made it too obvious. If not, Awesome. If so, I hope you enjoyed it anyway.**

**2nd, how did you enjoy the reveal? I've been waiting for it for a long time.**

**Anyway, ONTO THE NEXT CHAPTER!**

**P.S. Alese222, I hope you don't get offended by this, but I laughed at your review. Hahahahahahaha... no. No, they are not going to have a sleepover. Well, I guess they are, they're just replacing "sleep" with "murder." It's a murderover.**


	35. Kristoff Joins The Battle

**Super sorry about the delays. I've been having a busy time with school nearing its end. On the bright side, I'm not dead or giving up on this; I'm just busy.**

* * *

Kristoff watched in horror as Isabella backed Anna into the corner opposite the one Kristoff and Olaf were hiding in. He glanced around desperate to find something- _anything-_ to somehow cause a distraction. He weighed his options.

Throw something at her? He had nothing to throw. Plus, who knows, he might hit Anna. Not only that, but he was also a gentleman. A smelly gentleman, but a gentleman. He didn't want to hurt her if he could avoid it.

Jump out and shout, "Boo?" That seemed like the best option. It might not stop her, but that was all he really _could_ do. He knew he would be able to run up to her and stop her in time to prevent her from...

Kristoff gulped. He almost enacted his plan, but then he glanced at Olaf.

* * *

Anna looked terrified at Isabella. She pleaded softly to herself that this was a nightmare, but she could feel the heat from Isabella intensely, too intensely to be a dream.

Isabella looked at Anna in a mixture of disgust, sorrow, excitement, fear, anger... almost every emotion Anna could think of was present in some form on Isabella's face. Granted, Anna was in a bit of a panicked state, so she couldn't think very clearly, but it certainly seemed as though Isabella was conflicted to say the least.

"Come on," Anna started. "You don't have to do this, and I can see it in your face that you don't really _want_ to." Anna pleaded, but Isabella took another step forward, causing Anna to continue her steps as well until her back was to the wall.

"Or, at least part of you doesn't want to." Anna added after she felt the cold wall against her clothed back.

Isabella smirked as she brought her fire-bathed hand above her head and began to throw it forward.

A streak of white flew across the ice palace and landed right on Isabella's hand. By this time, Elsa had recovered slightly from her weakness and, noticing that Anna had a protector, proceeded to help Marshmallow back to his feet.

Isabella had no time to react before to more, slightly smaller, snowballs hit her on her cheek and shoulder. She turned to see where these snowballs were coming from, but that turned out to be a mistake for her as one last snowball, larger than all the rest, plowed itself directly into her gut. The force knocked her into the wall.

She looked down at the snowballs around her and wondered how exactly they had hit her with so much force, but remained intact. Her wondering was answered by Kristoff emerging from behind one of the ice pillars, Olaf's head resting in his arm.

* * *

Olaf was darting around looking just as Kristoff was for... something.

"What are we looking for?" Olaf whispered to Kristoff. Olaf was pretty sure Kristoff hadn't heard him.

Olaf, having no clue what he was supposed to do, just looked at a panicking Kristoff and waited for the mountain man to give the snowman orders.

None came.

Instead, Kristoff locked eyes with him for a moment, and then, without warning or asking approval, Kristoff reached at Olaf's midsection and lodged it free from the rest of his body. Kristoff took aim and hurled the snow toward Isabella. He didn't wait to see if it hit its mark, he simply grabbed both of Olaf's feet, which were about the size of average snowballs, and threw those as well. Lastly, Kristoff grabbed Olaf's butt and hurled it as well; he then grabbed Olaf's accessories, his buttons and arms, and placed them on Olaf's head. After that, he cradled Olaf's head and ran into open. He bowled Olaf's head over to the rest of his disassembled body parts and Olaf slowly put himself together again.

By this time, Elsa was back to maybe 80% and Marshmallow was back on his feet as well. Anna ran over to Elsa and hugged her deeply. There was a twinge of jealousy and anger that she went to Elsa before him, but he shrugged it off, realizing that there were _much_ more pressing matters at hand.

Isabella passed burning glares at each of them. Literally. Her Eyes looked as though they had small flames rather than pupils. She jerked her arms quickly and sent a ball of fire hurtling at Anna. Kristoff, who had made his way over to the sisters at this point, tackled Anna to the ground as it passed over them. Elsa was a few feet to the right of them both, so the flame passed by her, an equal distance to her left.

Elsa glanced from the two figures on the floor to Isabella. She saw Isabella about to throw another ball of fire at Kristoff and Anna.

As soon as she did, Elsa threw up a shield of ice all around the two of them.

The fireball hit the dome Elsa had created and melted it slightly, but otherwise it was undamaged. Elsa had expected to feel pain as the ice melted, but none came. The only thing Elsa could piece together was that ice was _already formed_ when Isabella hit it just then, but before her magic was still directly under her influence.

Elsa was brought back into reality by a small light out of the corner of her eyes. She glanced up to see Isabella with a smirk on her face and an eyebrow quirked. Elsa passed a quick glance at Olaf and Marshmallow who were visibly frightened, being creatures made of snow combating a fire-wielder was not something they were comfortable with.

Elsa had enough time to smile softly at them and nod her head, expecting them to run. They did. They ran at Isabella. Marshmallow used Olaf as ammunition just as Kristoff had done.

Elsa used this distraction to will the castle doors open and thrust the dome of ice, containing Kristoff and Anna, outside the palace. Elsa then willed the doors to close and braced for the pain as she shot her perfect ice out and sealed the doors shut.

Isabella heard the noise of what had happened and turned her attention to the door. She gave an impressed sort of look to Elsa.

"Well played." Isabella said to Elsa as she walked slowly toward the door. She pushed on it; struggled to find some way to pull on it; and attempted to burn a hole through it, all of which failed.

"How are you so perfect?" Isabella asked her. "So noble? Despite all that has happened to you?"

"What do you mean? 'How am I not as screwed up as you are?'" Elsa asked her.

"No, I mean, you've had more pain in your life than anyone else I've heard of. I mean, there are some people with sad stories, but most of them didn't ever know anything different. You, on the other hand, knew the perfect life for years and had it all taken from you. How did you not become vengeful when your powers were finally revealed?"

"Love." Elsa said simply.

"Right, the magic thing that keeps magic in check. I need to take that out of the picture, so that I can enjoy a nice winter... forever." Isabella closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

Elsa took that opportunity to form an ice prison around the girl. Isabella looked up at Elsa and sighed.

"You got me," She almost chuckled. "What now?"

"Why do you want winter?!" Elsa was very confused. After Isabella started attacking them with fire, all thoughts of _why_ Isabella would want eternal winter were out of Elsa's mind in favor of surviving the attack.

"I wield the power of fire. As a result of that, I resist cold temperatures as well as warm ones, but consequently, I rarely ever feel cold. I feel so wonderful when I do. I feel the goosebumps on my skin, and I love it. Every other temperature I feel like the sun, but when it's really cold, it feels really nice."

"So you're going to kill Anna, so you can be cold?" Elsa was shocked at the reasoning. This was arguably more selfish than Hans. He wanted the throne, she wanted... to feel cool?

"Not that I didn't enjoy our little heart-to-heart moment," Isabella started sarcastically, "but I'm gonna go kill your sister now."

Isabella easily melted through the ice and ran up the stairs. Elsa followed her as quickly as she could.

When Elsa got to the top of the staircase, she saw Isabella melting through the upper doors of the ice palace. The ones that she had repaired from when the Duke of Weaseltown's guards attacked her.

Isabella passed one last glance to Elsa before running through the doorway and jumping over the similarly-repaired balcony railing. she forced her fire out of her palms and out of her feet. She was actually staying aloft in the air.


	36. Pursuit

**I rewrote the ending for this chapter. I hope you enjoy it considerably more than you would have enjoyed the previous ending.**

* * *

Kristoff held his ear to the side of the dome. He couldn't hear anything, but he kept trying.

Anna, on the other hand, was holding herself softly, trying to keep warm while inside the ice dome.

When Kristoff heard her body whimper from how cold it was, he ceased his efforts and cradled her close to him in his arms.

"You're fine, Anna. I've got you."

She smiled appreciatively at him.

Being cut off from the danger around them, they completely forgot about it. Anna was just awestruck at the figure who, she knew, would do anything and everything to keep her safe. Kristoff was similarly awestruck at the sheer beauty of this woman who had chosen to love him above all others.

They were forced out of their silent admiration of each other when the ice began to move above them. the inside of the dome pressed against Kristoff's back and force him and Anna to follow its movements.

Eventually the light they had in the dome increased and the ice began to slowly melt away. They were outside the castle.

Kristoff scrambled to his feet and went down to get Sven ready. He carelessly cut the rope the tied the sled full of ice to Sven. He'd come back for it later. When he'd emerged from the stables in which Sven had resided he saw Anna pounding the door for Elsa to let her in. Kristoff scrambled clumsily up the slippery steps and picked Anna up to put her onto Sven.

"Put me down, Kristoff!" She cried. "I have to help Elsa."

"Elsa will be fine, it's you who's in danger." Kristoff told her.

"You can't know that." Anna said.

"When I was in there, Isabella practically ignored Elsa. Even with Elsa being weak against fire, she's still a threat. When I came, she attacked both you _and_ me. She doesn't want Elsa harmed. I don't know why, but she doesn't." Kristoff explained to Anna.

"Oh... I think I know why." Anna said, still in Kristoff's arms. "She wants Elsa to freeze everything."

Kristoff simply said, "Oh."

Kristoff had made it, Anna carried in his arms bridal style, to Sven. His mind went back to the first time he had carried her like this, when Elsa had frozen her heart. He placed her gently on the back of the reindeer and mounted it himself.

"Ride like the wind, Sven. We've got to go faster than we've ever gone before. Come on, buddy." Sven bolted, almost throwing Anna off in the process, but she wrapped her arms tightly around Kristoff's stomach. He loved Anna clinging desperately to him. In fact, he just loved anything that involved protecting her. Except the danger. That he could do without.

"K- Kristoff?" Anna tried to get his attention.

He looked back at her, and she pointed into the sky.

There was what appeared to be a streak of fire a couple hundred yards behind them and a little bit above them; it was low enough to the ground that Anna and Kristoff know it wasn't a comet.

"Sven, if you can't, that's fine, but could you maybe go a little faster?" Sven snorted at Kristoff's request and did his best to oblige. The party gained a little bit of speed and continued down the mountain. In just a couple minutes Kristoff and Anna looked back behind them and noticed that the fireball was gone from the sky. In a few more minutes there was a large explosion behind them that threw them all into the air.

* * *

Elsa followed Isabella as quickly as she could; however, she was grounded, having to dodge trees and other hazards, while Isabella was in the air. Elsa was obviously falling behind.

To make matters worse, Isabella was flying low enough to the ground that, occasionally, sparks would fall onto branches and start them on fire.

Elsa tried her best to put them out before they could run wild, using her little "melt the ice into water" trick that Andrew had taught her, but it was clear that Elsa had to choose: stop the fires, or stop Isabella.

Elsa decided on stopping Isabella. If she stopped Isabella, she couldn't make the fires anymore, and if she did it fast enough, the fire might not cause much damage. If Elsa stopped the fires, Isabella would have most likely made a lot more fire in her absence and, possibly, even have gotten Anna by the time she'd finished dousing the flames.

In Elsa's thoughts, she purposefully avoided thinking about what would happen if Isabella _did_ manage to get Anna.

Elsa, even when using her powers to create ramps for herself to skate and gain speed on and ignoring the trees sporadically catching fire, was continuing to fall behind Isabella. Elsa knew she had no hope of even keeping her current distance. In a few minutes, Isabella would be completely out of Elsa's vision.

Elsa was at a loss for what to do. She could only think of one thing to do, she desperately wished she could think of something else, but nonetheless, desperate times...

Elsa, while still pushing herself to keep up with Isabella, brought her left hand forward and aimed it at Isabella. She folded her ring and pinky fingers in against her palm and put her thumb on top of them both, pointing her index and middle directly at Isabella. She aimed very carefully, judging exactly how fast Isabella was gaining distance.

She shot a single blast of ice from her two fingers.

The blast flew directly through Isabella's chest, freezing her heart.

Elsa saw Isabella jerk slightly before beginning to lose altitude. Elsa lost direct sight of Isabella behind trees, but she could see roughly where Isabella would have landed.

Rather than skate there, Elsa chose to walk. She had tired herself by skating and using her powers faster than she thought she'd ever done before.

After a short while, Elsa made it to a clearing. At the very least, this was _near_ where Isabella ought to have landed.

Elsa looked around, but she couldn't find any sign of Isabella.

A quick note: Although Elsa isn't bothered by extreme temperatures thanks to her powers, she is very sensitive to temperature changes. It is because of this that she became aware of the temperature rising when most other likely wouldn't have. She glanced behind herself, and she saw the fire heading right for her.

Elsa was able to dodge the blast. mostly. The fire was close enough to Elsa to cause a small hole to form in the side of her dress. It also ended up hitting her cape, creating a hole in that as well.

Elsa noticed the warm air against skin that was usually cooled by the ice dress. She looked down to see the hole and waved her hand; the hole filled in when she did. Isabella noticed and gasped.

"Ice clothing?" She looked down at her own apparel and the look on her face seemed distant.

"Thats... very interesting." Isabella began. "I wonder." She waved her right arm along her left; the sleeve of her dress burned away, replaced a split second later with a sleeve that was a bright amber color. She brought her left arm along her right and willed her flames to replace that sleeve as well.

"Looks like I can have more appropriate apparel, considering my position." She said coldly

Isabel lifted both arms and fire swirled around her, burning her old dress away and replacing the thread with her own fire.

The fire extinguished itself, and by the time Elsa was able to get a clear view of Isabella, the dress had formed into an exact replica of her own. The only noticeable difference between the two dresses was the color they were crafted from.

Had someone touched the dresses, they would have felt that Isabel's was much warmer than Elsa's, but they probably would have guessed that had they known the origins of each dress.

Once Elsa got out of her initial shock, she spoke to Isabella.

"How are you okay?" Elsa was shocked and slightly concerned that Isabella showed no signs of having a frozen heart. Anna had become extremely weak when it first happened, and she even had some difficulty immediately after it had happened. They had both gotten over it fairly quickly, but there was... _something._

"I... froze your heart. You should be dying right now." Elsa informed the girl. Elsa was relieved to see that she hadn't killed her. She didn't want to kill anyone.

_"Don't be the monster they fear you are."_

Despite the identity of the man who had said that, it served better to keep Elsa's powers in check than "Conceal, don't feel."

Elsa's attention was snapped back to Isabella when she began speaking once more.

"Elsa..." She started. Isabella was talking to Elsa in a way that made Elsa feel like she was a child and not in a good way. "If I could be killed by you freezing my heart, I would be dead right now."

Elsa thought about that for a short period of time. At least half a dozen questions surged through Elsa's mind in response to Isabella's reveal.

All of the questions manifested themselves at the same time in the form of:

"Wait, what?"

* * *

**I seriously want to see if you guys can find every time I foreshadowed something... I think almost every plot element has been foreshadowed at some point in this story.**


	37. Anna's Slide

**First off, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY MADE THIS STORY MORE POPULAR THAN, "A Queen's Nightmares." It's kinda sad that it took three times as many chapters for us to surpass it but whatever... we're here now. Plus, it was a sequel. I myself find that I don't often go for sequels as that means I have _two _stories to read to catch up on everything. In fact, that's part of why I decided to put the, "What Has Gone Before" chapters in. Second, I rewrote the ending for the last chapter. Third, I apologize for Isabella's whiplash in the last chapter. I really wanted to essentially make Isabella Elsa but... red, and at the time I couldn't quite think of a good way to do it. I justified the mood whiplash in my mind by saying, "Oh... you know... she's got a frozen heart. That makes sense, right?" But no... it doesn't... not at all. *sigh* Anyhoo, TO THE STORY! (I promise to try harder to have everything make sense. Granted, sometimes I _want_ you guys slightly confused, but for the most part I want you to be able to follow the story.)**

* * *

Isabella explained to Elsa exactly what had happened. (-Chapter 29: "Overreacting to the situation, she[Elsa] pushed Anna away and shot a stream of ice from **_each hand_**. **_The blast_** hit **_its_** mark, and a giant hill made completely of snow formed immediately in front of Isabel." I bet you thought it was a typo. :) )

"I felt... cold. Initially I thought nothing of it. I had just run straight into snow; it would have been surprising not to feel at least slightly cold, but that moment a minute ago... you gave me that same feeling again." Isabella sighed. "Do it again... please."

Elsa blinked. Nothing good seemed to ever come from a frozen heart... or a... frozen almost-anything. A small bit of hope blossomed within Elsa, however, at the thought that Isabella's heart was frozen. Perhaps Isabella had a similar reaction to that Elsa did. Elsa didn't seem to have any control when her heart was frozen, and she went back to normal once it was thawed. Of course, more panic came in from the fact that Elsa didn't seem to have any control of herself when her heart was frozen, Meaning that the Isabella that Elsa had known these past many months might not be anywhere accessible and, therefore, could not be appealed to.

"... No... I need to figure out how to unfreeze you." Elsa told her.

"No?" Isabella waited for Elsa's confirmation. Elsa soon nodded her head, folding her hands together so that Isabella knew that her nod was confirming her "no."

"Fine." Isabella said soon after Elsa had been nodding for a few seconds.

Isabella raised her hand and a fire started on all sides of Elsa. It made a small, circular circle about eight feet across the center. The fire started about three inches from the ground, as if to say, "Hey, I'm magic" and continued about ten feet up before capping off, preventing Elsa's escape by any direction but down. Elsa quickly decided that it would take far too long to dig a hole down to escape.

Isabella began walking off in the direction she had been heading before. She knew she had lost ground on the other party, but it couldn't be too hard to track them down again.

As if she forgot something, Isabella turned and walked back to Elsa.

"Don't worry," Isabella said in dark tone that might have terrified Elsa if the flames weren't already doing that. "I'll bring you her corpse."

Isabella turned once more and ran off to catch her prize.

* * *

Marshmallow pounded repeatedly at the palace doors. They were still sealed by Elsa's ice, and it seemed like no amount of force would be able to break the seal. At least, no amount of force Marshmallow was able to exert.

"Stand back." Olaf said. Marshmallow obeyed.

Olaf walked back maybe ten feet before rushing forward as fast as he could. He instinctively stuck his arms out to brace for the impact.

His face plowed into the door. The arms that he'd stuck out to brace himself simply flew off of his midsection and slid across the floor for a few feet. One of them slid back to where Olaf began his running start, the other was stopped by Marshmallow.

"I think I heard it crack." Marshmallow started softly and flatly.

"Oh, wait. That was your arm." He said holding up the twig.

Olaf frowned and grabbed the stick from Marshmallow. The break was about an inch from his shoulder, so he used his foot along side his left arm to break it fully. He put the slightly shorter arm back into his body and moved it a could times.

"I can live with a shorter arm." Olaf said. "I can't live without Elsa or Anna."

The two snowpeople stood still momentarily before Olaf started jumping happily.

"They went through the upstairs doors! Why didn't I think of that?"

Marshmallow made a low noise that could probably best be described as a growl.

They made their way up to the upstairs balcony and jumped. They harmlessly, but clumsily, landed on the snow below.

"So, should we split up to find them?" Olaf asked.

As if in response, they saw a ball of fire shoot up from a ways down the mountain and start to fly in the opposite direction of Olaf and Marshmallow.

"Oh." Olaf almost giggled. "Well, I guess that makes it easy for us then."

Olaf ran in the direction of the fire. He only got a short distance before he was plucked up by Marshmallow.

Marshmallow placed Olaf on his shoulder and they began at a much faster pace than Olaf would have set for them.

It didn't take long for them to happen upon Elsa, trapped in a cage made entirely of fire. Her hand was placed firmly, if almost painfully, against her face.

* * *

Elsa had already tried several things to escape. She'd dropped a large block of ice on top of it. She expected the ice to snuff out the fire and she would simply pass through it harmlessly, but the fire actually melted the ice. It flickered slightly as the water that it had just formed dripped onto it.

That was the next thing Elsa had tried. She formed yet another block of ice above her head, but this time, she willed it to melt, and water rained down on the flames. They almost flickered out of existence, but Isabella could sense- In reality she'd been put through physical pain by- the fires being drowned out, and she willed the flames to come back even stronger than before, and that's exactly what happened.

Elsa was forced to move to the middle by the heat. It took much of her concentration just to force her dress to remain frozen. She knew that if she remained here for too much longer, she wouldn't be able to keep it frozen, and once it melted she would probably become a sick and perverted tourist attraction.

"Come see the queen of Arendelle stark naked in a cage made of fire. It's sure to make you _hot_."

Elsa shuddered at the bad pun. Sure, she'd made it herself, but there's no way, if that actually happened, that people would be able to let it go. She actually face-palmed at that one.

That's when she saw Marshmallow with Olaf sitting comfortably on his shoulder. Olaf jumped from Marshmallow's shoulder, to his open palm, to the ground. He waddled over to Elsa, but Elsa gestured for him to stop. He did.

"I'm stuck. I can't do anything to break out, and if either of you get to close, you'll melt."

Marshmallow heard, "I'm stuck," "break out," and "don't get too close." He picked up a small boulder for him, but it was about a quarter of Elsa's height and three times her width, which admittedly isn't much.

Of course, being made out of fire, the boulder passed through the "bars" of fire.

Elsa once again brought her hand to her face. She took a running start and ran straight at the flames. She closed her eyes and kept going towards Olaf and Marshmallow. She didn't open her eyes until she felt Marshmallow pluck her up and place her on his shoulder. She noticed that he also did the same to Olaf. What she didn't notice, however, was the fact that her dress had melted as she'd ran through the flames. Olaf and Marshmallow would have likely pointed it out, except for the fact that neither of them wear clothes; Olaf had even once asked Anna why people did. Anna didn't feel comfortable answering.

* * *

It took Isabella a surprisingly short time to locate Kristoff; Anna; and Sven. They had literally gone in a straight line from the palace and continued that direction the whole way. That matched with the fact that Isabella no longer felt that she needed to keep an eye on Elsa, she was trapped in a fire prison after all, meant that it was a quick and easy job, up until she actually got there.

It was obvious that they were oblivious to her presence so close to them, so she did what any crazy pyro likely would have done. She threw a fireball that exploded right behind Sven, sending all three of them flying a short distance. Sven flew about five feet, Kristoff maybe six, and Anna-

Where was Anna?

* * *

Anna could feel the intense heat and force of the explosion long after the explosion itself subsided. Looking back, she blamed the shock.

She also blamed the pain she was feeling on the shock, as Andrew had actually caught her quite tenderly.

Andrew currently had his arm wrapped protectively around Anna. They were sliding down a ramp of ice that was forming a few feet in front of them.

They slid for several minutes uneventfully until Isabella caught up to them. Isabella shot a blast of fire at the ice ramp in front of them making a small indent to appear. It was small, but it was big enough that it would certainly prevent them from continuing down the ramp. Well, prevent _one of them_. Thinking quickly, Andrew placed Anna on his stomach.

"Hi. How are ya?" He asked.

"I have a-" Anna was cut off by Andrew lifting her into the air slightly. He fell into the break in the ramp Isabella had created, but Anna fell smoothly back onto the ramp. For a short while, the ramp continued on. After a minute or so of the ice continuing to magically appear in front of her, Anna began to worry about what she would do once it stopped doing so.

As if reading her mind, the ramp arced slightly up before ending abruptly.

_'Good.' _Anna thought to herself sarcastically. _'I'm going to fly _up_ a little bit before I fall to my death.'_

* * *

**Fun fact: When Isabella's heart first got frozen, I actually used the lines from when Anna gets her heart frozen in the actual movie but with name changes.  
**

**By the way, please read the new ending for the old chapter and tell me if it still sucks. I want to get this right.**


	38. Regrouping

Isabella had almost completely forgotten about Anna. Right now, her murderous intentions were focused on Andrew.

Isabella was throwing fireball after fireball at Andrew, but he was either dodging them, or shielding them with ice.

"Nice trick." She said to him while casting another blast of fire at him which he once again shielded. "Where'd you learn it?"

"I taught myself, actually." Andrew said. His voice sounded kind of distracted and distant, understandably so, he was currently having fire thrown at him.

He dodged another blast.

"Stand still so I can fry you!" She exclaimed as shooting more fire than she had ever previously done.

The blast was large enough that Andrew couldn't dodge it. and it would melt any ice he threw up; it might even set the forest around them on fire, so he took the only action he could think to prevent the most damage. He shot his hand forward and water escaped his fingertips. The fire was stopped in it's tracks.

Isabella was on the ground, gasping in pain.

"Alright." She said through ragged breaths. "You've knocked me to the ground almost effortlessly. If you'll excuse me for a moment to catch my breath, that'd be great."

She continued to gasp.

"I'm... sorry. I didn't want to hurt you." Andrew was feeling very guilty because his actions despite being fully justified in them.

"Of course you did. That's all you've ever done." She was staggering to her feet. The upside of fire powers? It's beautiful and you hold such incredibly destructive abilities. The downside? A drop of water can send you do your knees, more than that can knock you out. Isabella had previously trained herself to be able to shrug off water. It helped slightly. Several years ago, that blast would have knocked her out and potentially even killed her, but now it just... made her incredibly vulnerable.

"Alright," She said once she'd made it to her feet. She was still a bit wobbly, but she didn't fall. That was a victory for her. She felt kinda nauseous though.

"I've got business to take care of, and I can't do that with you around. I also have no chance of stopping you, so I guess I'll have to delay you."

She smirked and shot fire out from her hands. Not at Andrew, at the forest around them.

"Have fun with the fire, brother." She spat that last word out with a contempt in her voice that hurt Andrew as she leaped into the air and began flying off in the direction the slide of ice was going.

* * *

Anna was barreling toward the end of the ramp. She became increasingly panicked as she neared the end. Luckily for her, the end wasn't that far away, so she didn't have much more time to become more panicked.

She slid of the end. As she did, she arced up slightly before she began to descend once more. This was all fully expected.

What wasn't expected was a naked Elsa riding on the shoulder of Marshmallow who leaped up to try to catch Anna from her fall.

As Anna sailed through the air toward the ground, Elsa reached her hand out to her. Anna reached to Elsa as well. Their fingers were inches from touching, but nonetheless, Elsa wasn't able to catch Anna. Elsa almost made another ice ramp to try to catch her painlessly, but where Elsa had failed, Marshmallow had succeeded. Anna was dropped into Marshmallow's claw. Surprisingly, the impact didn't hurt her at all. That could have just been since her body had recently gone almost completely numb at the thought that she was going to die.

Marshmallow skidded to a stop and let Anna down gently. Elsa dropped from Marshmallow's shoulder and ran over to Anna. Anna saw a naked Elsa leaning over her.

"Anna!" She exclaimed. "Are you alright?"

Anna blinked at Elsa. Then her eyes quickly darted down Elsa's body before locking her eyes to Elsa's once again.

"Elsa..." Anna almost groaned. "Why are you naked?" Elsa darted her eyes down her own body before her cheeks began blushing furiously. Anna had never seen Elsa so pink. Her pale skin actually contained color. Anna tried to ignore the gorgeousness of the blushing, not to mention nude and currently leaning in very close, Elsa.

After a few awkward moments, Elsa backed off. She stood up and turned around. Anna tried not to look, but curiosity got the best of her. Elsa raised her arm to summon her magic and answered Anna.

"Ice dresses don't do well against fire." She said simply.

"Ice underwear?" Anna said, raising an eyebrow despite the fact that Elsa couldn't see her.

Elsa's silence told Anna that she was even more embarrassed, and she was likely blushing even more now if that was possible.

"Shut up." Elsa told her to prevent the conversation from getting any weirder.

A minute or so after Elsa got her dress reformed, Kristoff came out from behind one of the trees followed by Sven. He had been there for a while, but he didn't want to embarrass Elsa more than she already _clearly_ was by walking in while she was on top of Anna naked or afterwords when she was forming her dress. He tried to wait just long enough that she wouldn't suspect he'd seen her.

"Now what?" He asked them.

They discussed for a while as to what to do. If they went back to Arendelle, they would be bringing Isabella there for sure, and none of them wanted to invite an evil fire-controlling person into the mostly wooden kingdom. Bad idea. They decided on returning to the ice palace. Elsa's ice there wouldn't melt, and if Isabella _did_ try to go to the kingdom, she wouldn't have any reason to attack the kingdom since they wouldn't be there.

"Hopefully." Kristoff had added in his cynicism. "It could be that she would go back and ask where we were, and when they told her that we were at the ice palace, she would assume they were lying."

Anna noticed the horror on Elsa's face and hit Kristoff across the shoulder hard enough that it would certainly bruise.

"Ah, what?" Kristoff asked indignantly. He kept that attitude until Anna brought his attention to Elsa. His face fell.

"I'm... sure that won't happen, I just wanted to..." He stopped talking before he dug himself down deeper.

"To the ice palace it is then." Anna said in her usual bubbly tone. She marched off back toward the north mountain. She'd greatly improved her sense of direction since her first trek up there. If Elsa would ever let her, Anna could actually make the trip by herself. Anna made it maybe ten feet before Kristoff rode past on Sven, waving to her the whole way.

"Hey!" She exclaimed in frustration.

She shrugged her shoulders and continued her journey on foot. Soon Anna felt something against her. It was Marshmallow's claw wrapping itself around her. She could no longer feel the ground beneath her feet. Soon, Anna was sitting on top of Marshmallow's shoulder.

* * *

Andrew had been struggling to keep the flames in check for a while. He'd finished the flames Isabella had initially summoned fairly quickly, but he found an entire, full fledged forest fire eating the trees a short way from the ice palace. _This_ was the real challenge. He'd been working on this for a long time.

He desperately hoped that Anna was okay. He should be trying to protect her, but he knew he'd never forgive himself if he had the opportunity to douse these flames but didn't, and someone got hurt. Conversely, he knew he'd never forgive himself in he'd wasted all his time extinguishing these fires, and Anna ended up getting hurt. There was only one way for him to wind up happy by the end of this: Every single person has got to make it out okay.

As if in response to his silent pleas he saw Kristoff mounted on Sven rush toward the ice palace, followed quickly but clumsily by Marshmallow carrying Elsa; Anna; and Olaf.

As an added bonus, Marshmallow accidentally stomped out the last of the forest fire!

Andrew couldn't help but grin as he turned to the castle himself.

There was a blast of light from behind him. He stopped and slumped forward.

He vaguely heard the voice of his sister from above him.

"Get back to work." It had said.

He turned slowly, praying to whoever might be listening that it was all his imagination.

It wasn't.

In front of him burned a fire larger than he'd ever seen naturally, but of course, this wasn't natural.

He once again found himself torn. He could douse the flames, or he could help protect Anna.

He decided to fight the flames. Both Isabella and Elsa hated him, so in all likelihood, they would just unite for a short time to get rid of their mutual enemy. If only they actually let him explain his side of it, they might understand. Oh well, he wouldn't get that opportunity for a long time. Although if he _did_ explain everything to Elsa, she'd probably hate him more. Life is so difficult.

His thought process went roughly like that for the majority of the time he was fighting the flames.

He lost track of time, and before what felt like too long, he realized he was dropping water on regular trees, the fire was all gone. He turned his attention to the palace once again to find Isabel walking out of the palace carrying what appeared to be Kristoff in her arms. She summoned fire underneath herself and began to fly across the sky, her flames propelling her the whole way. Andrew decided to pursue.


	39. Bookends

Anna; Elsa; Kristoff; Marshmallow; Olaf; and even Sven were waiting within the ice palace. They stood in almost perfect silence. They knew Isabella would arrive at some point, they just didn't know when. Marshmallow had taken his usual perch at the top of the branching staircase; Sven stood behind him; Olaf was thirty feet from the front doors giving the most intimidating face his adorable shape and nature would allow, he wanted to be much closer, but Elsa had instructed him to back up; Elsa was standing toward the back, shivering while thinking the very worst in terms of what might be happening to the kingdom; Anna had her arms wrapped around her sister and shot piercing glares at Kristoff while rubbing Elsa's shoulder lightly. Kristoff was standing in front of everyone except Olaf, but his back was to the door because he was giving Anna very apologetic looks.

The doors burst open and Kristoff spun on his heel to face Isabella.

"I see you got rid of the ice." She said with malice.

Despite Isabella's strong words, she was shaken and unsure of herself. She was feeling slightly... weak. She kept having vague, seemingly unrelated flashbacks to things she had witnessed the past few months that clouded her mind. The visions ranged from kisses Anna shared with Kristoff, to times when she and Elsa shared hugs, to some moments when Kristoff and Elsa were joking around, even to some of this day's events as well. _especially _this day's events. When Kristoff tackled Anna to the ground so Isabella's fire would pass harmlessly over her. When Elsa created a dome of ice around Anna and Kristoff before sending the pair off to deal with Isabella herself. Even when Andrew lifted Anna up so that she could continue her journey down the slide without him.

As soon as the doors opened Elsa straightened herself and Anna released Elsa from her grip and also stood upright.

Marshmallow walked down from the staircase and began to make his way toward Isabella. Elsa followed his movements. They both stopped when they were both in line with Olaf in front of Isabella. From her point of view, Marshmallow was on the left; Olaf was on the right; and Elsa was in the middle.

"Wow, three against one? That doesn't seem fair." Isabella said to the group in front of her.

Anna opened her mouth to say something, probably to correct Isabella, but Kristoff silenced her.

"How about we even it out a bit?" Isabella brought her hands to either side of her, and fire flew out in both directions. As the two blasts of fire hit the ground, the fire began to swirl and, before too long, rise. the groups of flames began to pull themselves into two shapes. One in front of Olaf, the other in front of Marshmallow. As the figures finished forming Isabella walked up to Elsa such that they were within a foot of each other. The two flaming figures did the same.

Olaf eyed the figure that looked suspiciously similar to himself as Marshmallow did the same to the figure that looked similar to him.

It was blue and white vs. amber and red. On Elsa's side, there seemed to be fear, but on Isabella's there resided a sick satisfaction.

Kristoff and Anna looked nearly as fearful as the Snowmen and Elsa did, but Anna's fear evaporated into curiosity as she studied the opposing party.

"Somehow, I don't think this is what you meant when you said, 'warm hugs,' Olaf." With those words, Anna knew for sure.

The flame apparitions of Marshmallow and Olaf were, in fact, not real at all. Their motions were copying that of Isabella. When Isabella had said those words, The fire Olaf and Marshmallow had mouthed them as well. If Anna could break Isabella's concentration, she might be able to force the copies away.

Anna broke away from Kristoff and charged into Isabella, tackling her to the ground. As soon as the fire wielder hit the ground, the fire beings extinguished into puffs of smoke.

All present, except Isabella, were too relieved to quite notice what was going on between Isabella and Anna, even Anna herself.

That is, until Anna's clothing burst into flames.

Anna instinctively pushed herself off of Isabella. Elsa summoned ice above Anna and melted it, successfully extinguishing the flames.

Anna got up off the ground once she was certain the flames were snuffed or drowned out, her beautiful green dress was charred in some areas and wet all over. Unlike Elsa's dress, however, it held together against the increased temperatures.

Olaf dashed to Isabella and leaped on top of her. He was hitting him with his uneven arms as well as pulling her hair. It wasn't particularly painful, but it was highly annoying to Isabella. She threw the snowman off of her and aimed her hand directly at Olaf.

"Bye bye." She said before fire erupted from her fingertips and streams of fire barreled towards Olaf.

Olaf was petrified. At the realization that he was made of snow, and fire melts snow, Olaf's body frozen as if that would lower his body temperature enough to keep him intact. It wasn't, and Marshmallow knew that. Being the only one who could effectively take action, he did.

Marshmallow bolted toward Olaf and planted himself between the flames and the snowman just in time for the flames to engulf his body instead of his brother's. Olaf was frozen for a completely different reason now. Marshmallow had sacrificed himself... _for him._ Kristoff made it to Olaf and got him out of the way of the flames that would soon melt past Marshmallow, who was now a lifeless pile of snow getting ready to melt into water and evaporate into the air.

Marshmallow never said these words, but everyone present could look back and swear they had heard them as if he had.

"Some people are worth melting for."

Isabella didn't know how she felt. On one hand, she'd gotten rid of an obstacle. On the other, someone who she'd loved was gone by her own hand. She pushed that aside and decided to be angry that she didn't get who she'd wanted to, but it got increasingly difficult to do so. Her mind kept getting distracted and playing back events like that in her mind.

Isabella saw motion out of the corner of her eye. A stream of light blue was rushing towards her. She summoned fire in her palms to counter the attack.

Elsa screamed out in pain as her ice was met with fire, but she pushed through it. Marshmallow had just died, and she wasn't going to let that happen to Olaf or anyone else. Somewhere in the back of Elsa's mind, she was wondering why Marshmallow's sacrifice hadn't unfrozen Isabella's heart.

_'Did the act have to be performed by her? To her? Will it work if she simply witnesses it? Do snowpeople not count? Or is her heart truly thawed, but this was her goal the whole time?' _For the sake of keeping hope alive, Elsa decided that snowpeople must just not count. _'But that means Marshmallow died for nothing... No. He saved Olaf. That's not nothing.' _Elsa looked up and saw that Isabella's hands were frozen over. She stopped her magic and fell to the ground, gasping for breath from the intense pain. Isabella smirked at her.

"Fire _melts_ ice, Elsa." Isabella held up her left hand for all to see, but all they saw was a chuck of ice at the end of an arm. The ice was glowing slightly, but there was no other sign that Isabella was trying anything against it.

Isabella's expression went from shocked; to confused; to a smirk once again. Elsa's face held an expression of pride the whole time, it was one of the few times Anna had seen her look like that; in fact, Anna had only seen that expression on her sister maybe three of four times over the course of their lives. Disregarding all the times when they were kids, back when Elsa saw the wonder in her powers rather than the danger.

"I don't need my hands to shoot fire." Isabella said it calmly, but it still surprised Anna out of her recollections.

Isabella lifted a leg and slashed it through the air, sending a thin wave of fire toward the group of five. Elsa brought up a wall of ice to block it.

The added weight of the ice on her hands made Isabella lose her balance. She fell to ground of the ice palace. She groaned and picked herself back up. She got herself to her feet just in time to see Elsa fire more ice toward her feet. She reacted by lighting her legs on fire. Another scream came from Elsa, but she pushed through it. Isabella could feel that her feet were now coated in ice and frozen to the ground.

Isabella laughed.

She laughed surprisingly hard considering she was utterly stuck in the middle of the ice palace; no one saw the smoke coming out of her mouth as she did so.

Elsa shot her ice out to coat even more of the girl. At first, it didn't hurt nearly as much as Elsa felt it should have to use her perfect ice, but then again, she wasn't using her perfect ice _and_ having her powers engulfed in flames at the same time. _Yet._

Isabella opened her mouth and fire spewed from her lungs; up her throat; out her mouth; and into Elsa's ice. Elsa screamed one last time. This time the pain was actually too much. Elsa dropped to her knees, and soon after that, she fell onto her side. It took all her strength to remain conscious. The pain that her adrenaline had shrugged off in her previous uses of magic came flooding back to her.

"I've finally downed the ice witch." Isabella said. "How much more magic could you use before you lose consciousness entirely, Elsa? I'm thinking one. _maybe_two. How about I create a fire wave throughout this whole room to burn you all until you're charcoal?"

"I thought you wanted Elsa to freeze everything for you." Anna almost spat out. She had tried to go toward Elsa, but a hefty amount of smoke rising out of Isabella's mouth and nostrils told her that it might not be such a good idea to do so.

"I did, but now I'm a little bit _absolutely livid_." Isabella's voice lowered at those last words.

Kristoff and Sven had made their way over to where Anna and Olaf were standing, but Isabella mad it cleat that Elsa was off limits. They were all ready to run and take a blast of fire for her should she need it, but for now they felt it better to keep whatever shed of peace that might have existed in their present situation.

"Plus," Isabella continued. "I don't think it's a good idea to keep any of you alive. If Elsa's alive, she'd freeze me over. If Kristoff is alive, he'd be lost without Anna. Plus, he'd probably end up king." Isabella shuddered. "If Anna's alive, She would be lost without Kristoff. That, and Anna as queen would be worse than the kingdom frozen over." That spiked Elsa's rage. Anna thought it was true, so she merely got an expression of sadness upon her face.

"I don't have anything against the reindeer or the snowman, but I don't want to take the time to pick and choose. So... _everyone dies_."

"You're insane!" Kristoff yelled at her.

Isabella brought her arms forward in an attempt to give the mountain man two thumbs up, but her efforts were thwarted by the ice on her hands.

She groaned.

Then she started glowing.

Kristoff shot his eyes over to Elsa. Elsa was already looking at him. Kristoff jerked his eyes toward Anna, and Elsa nodded in understanding.

A torrent of fire blasted from Isabella's body. Elsa responded by creating a large wall of ice in front of the four of them. Kristoff leaped out from the protection of the ice and ran toward a quickly weakening Elsa. He picked her up in both arms and threw her as softly as he could behind the barrier Elsa had made. The fire melted the ice barrier and set Kristoff ablaze before it subsided. Anna could hear Kristoff's agonized yells as his body burned, but Anna's eyes were locked to what was above Isabella.

On their first visit to the ice palace since The Great Freeze, Elsa had decided to put a chandelier in on the main floor as well as replace the one on the top floor.

And, of course, Isabella's fire had melted just enough of the chandelier to cause it to fall but not enough to make it any less deadly to whoever was unfortunate enough to be underneath it when it fell. Obviously, that was Isabella. Anna ran from Elsa to Isabella, trying to tackle her to the floor and out of the way of the chandelier.

When Anna ran into her, Isabella felt the ice on her hands and feet weaken. She didn't know if Elsa's loss of consciousness had forced her ice to weaken, or if Elsa's last act before her sleep was to free Isabella from certain death, but Isabella was broken out of her bonds by the force of Anna running into her combined with the force of them hitting the ground.

Elsa had succumbed to the pain and weakness she was feeling; Kristoff was out of commission due to him currently burning to death; and Anna had twisted herself while pushing Isabella out of the way of the falling chandelier such that Anna hit her head hard when she fell and Isabella landed on top of her, so Anna was also cuurently unconscious.

Sven and Olaf were watching the situation unfold, but neither of them were making any move against Isabella. She was completely free to do whatever she wished.


	40. Elsa and Anna

Elsa opened her eyes. Somewhere in the back of her mind she sensed she was relieved that she had done so, but she couldn't put her finger on why. She scanned the room she was in. She saw that there was shattered ice all over the floor. Elsa's mind supplied Hans's, "_rescue_ _mission_" as why this would be the case. Elsa was almost ready to accept this and continue on with her life before three things struck her.

First, Elsa's chandelier was on the top floor. She hadn't crafted the one downstairs yet.

Second, Elsa had memories of events following his visit.

Third, Anna _definitely _wasn't there when Hans came.

"Anna!"

Without a second thought, Elsa ran to her sister and sat down beside her. Elsa lifted Anna's body onto her lap.

"No. No No no. nononononono" Elsa's right eye let loose a single tear.

It was only after Elsa's tear dropped from her chin to Anna that Elsa saw her sister's chest rise and fall as the princess drew in air. Elsa, with Anna so close, could also feel the steady pulse of her sister. That calmed Elsa a little bit.

_'she's still alive.'_

"It's okay, Anna. I've got you."

Then, Elsa drew her eyes to her surroundings, remembering everything. She knew now that there should be a snowman; a reindeer; a man; and another woman here, but there was no one. They were the only two people present in the palace.

* * *

Anna was dreaming of her long-lost memories. She found that her unconscious mind was still uncontrollably drawn to the past she was forced to forget. She'd come to accept that her mind was intensely curious about these memories that were both new and old at the same time.

She dreamed of all the days they played together with Elsa's powers. She felt cold throughout the dream. This seemed natural within the dreams, she _was_ playing with Elsa after all, but in truth, it was reality bleeding through into her dreams. The coldness she felt was the cold of being on the peak of a mountain; in a palace made of ice; and lying of the floor made of ice.

As Anna's final dream, she was back in the ballroom. It was the night Elsa accidentally struck Elsa's head with her magic.

"Anna!" She heard Elsa cry out. The voice came from her eight year old sister, but it sounded much older than that.

"It's okay, Anna. I've got you." The voice sounded once again.

This was the moment in Anna's memories when the queen grabbed Anna out of Elsa's arms, but the king and queen never showed. Anna simply saw Elsa cradling her, the remains of the snowman they'd built lying behind her.

Soon, the five year old Anna opened her eyes and locked them with her sister.

The young Anna blinked and the ballroom was replaced with walls of ice, and a young Elsa was replaced by a woman much older than her. Comparing the two, Anna could easily see how the beautiful young princess became the gorgeous queen before her.

They both smiled warmly at each other.

"Anna." Elsa whispered in relief while she brought her sister close for a firm yet loving hug.

"Elsa." Anna sighed as she returned Elsa's embrace.

Anna, while still holding onto her sister, brought her eyes around the room and quickly realized that something was wrong.

Elsa felt Anna's heart begin to race.

"Where's Kristoff?!" Anna almost yelled it into Elsa's ear, and Elsa flinched and pulled away from Anna.

"I- I don't know. I woke up, and it was just you and me here." Anna's blood began boiling inside of her and Elsa could almost feel the heat radiate out of her and into the air around them, but of course, it was all in her imagination.

"Olaf; Sven; Isabel; and Marshmall-" Anna's face fell.

_'That's right. Marshmallow is... melted.'_

"Olaf; Sven; and Isabel are gone too?" Anna corrected herself, but Elsa obviously caught what she was originally going to say. Who wouldn't have?

Elsa slowly nodded her head. Her look of sadness on her face told Anna that Elsa was deeply troubled. If not by everyone seemingly missing, then by Marshmallow's selfless sacrifice for Olaf. It rather reminded Elsa of someone else she knew.

Elsa looked at Anna as she walked stiffly and angrily over to the grand doors leading from the palace to the mountain peak.

"Where are you going?" Elsa asked as Anna neared the door.

"I'm going to look for him." Anna responded.

Elsa paid special interest to the fact that Anna said "him" instead of "them."

"Where are you going to look?" She asked Anna.

"Anywhere?" Anna answered. She was clearly stressed and probably used a harsher tone than she needed to.

"Everywhere." Anna corrected a short time afterword.

Her voice was more calm the second time she spoke.

"That's your plan? Run out into the wild and find him? You'll get yourself killed, and you'll never find him." Elsa said firmly.

"What's _your_ plan?!" Anna was angry that Elsa seemed more concerned about her than Kristoff. Again, hindsight being 20/20, Anna knew she should have been flattered by Elsa's concern, but in the moment, she was offended.

"If Kristoff is okay, and I'm sure he is, he'll return to Arendelle on his own." Elsa said.

"And if he's not?! What if he isn't okay, and I can help?" Anna was drifting from anger into anguish.

"What if he isn't okay and you _can't _help? What if you'd just make things worse? What if your fate becomes the same as his?"

Anna's eyes took sudden interest in the floor as she contemplated what her sister was saying.

After a few moments of thoughtful silence, Anna brought her eyes back to her sister.

"I'll never know if I don't try." Anna opened the doors and began to walk through them, but Elsa interrupted her again.

"Anna... don't go." Elsa pleaded to her.

"Is that a queenly order?" Anna asked sarcastically.

"No." Elsa answered simply before adding: "It's a sisterly request."

Anna was once again brought into the realm of her mind to contemplate everything one last time.

"Anna. Think about how you would feel if Kristoff was gone and multiply that by six." Elsa said sadly. "I need you, Anna. Even more than _I _realize, I think."

Anna contemplated that as well. What would Anna do if she were in Elsa's position? Probably the same thing. You would have expected that years of being separated from each other would make them more distant and independent of each other, but the opposite was true. Since they were reunited they were closer and more dependent on each other than maybe anyone had ever been.

Anna thought about that, and an idea came to her.

"Come with me." She said.

"Anna, I can't. I have a kingdom to run."

Elsa's eyes went wide.

_'I have a kingdom to run.'_

"We have to go back now." Elsa said before she joined Anna in the doorway.

Anna let out a sigh.

"Okay."

They went out to the ice stables where Elsa had brought her white horse.

"Where are the others?" Anna asked nobody in particular.

"I passed them on my way up. I think Isabel cut them loose and sent them back to Arendelle, probably so we couldn't run."

"That plan didn't work out too well." Anna stifled a chuckle. She was unsure if that was really a laughing matter.

Elsa shrugged.

"She didn't bet on Kristoff showing up. If he hadn't, you wouldn't be here right now."

Of course, Anna had already known that. Kristoff and Anna both knew that, without the other, neither of them would still be alive.

The two sisters shared the horse to get back to Arendelle. They rode in silence the whole way back.

In the days that followed, Elsa and Anna barely spoke a word to each other. Anna didn't speak at all. Elsa almost forgot what her sister's voice sounded like. Anna was almost worried she would forget how to speak.

The time that Elsa wasn't in meetings; signing papers; or listening to the whining of the people was spent in Anna's company. It was just the three of them: Elsa, Anna, and dead silence. Elsa didn't know if she was blocking out the noise, or if the birds had truly stopped singing their songs, but Elsa never heard them either way.

Elsa usually loved listening to the people's requests. She enjoyed communing with her subject. Most of them were very respectful and kind. Some of them had fairly childish problems, but even they were, for the most part, pleasant.

Now, though, every time Elsa heard requests from the people, she just wanted to be with Anna comforting her. Her lack of any desire to be there made it so that the slightest unpleasant tone in the voices of her subjects made her hair stand on end. She didn't want to be there, and she didn't have to be there. She was _gracing_ them with her presence, and she felt like they were disrespecting her. Of course, doing anything about the fact that she felt disrespected would take more time out of what she had to give to Anna, so she took it as patiently as she could.

Right now, as Elsa had Anna under her arm with Anna's head against her shoulder. Anna was asleep. Elsa thought to how every night when Elsa was sleeping, Anna just stood by the window and looked out over the kingdom. Anna desperately hoped that, at some point, she would see a small party enter the city square.

A man; a woman; a snowman; and a reindeer.

But every night passed and no signs of them came.

Then Elsa would wake up and wrap her arms around her.

Anna hadn't slept except while she was cuddled underneath Elsa's arm with her head against Elsa's shoulder.

Anna began to wonder if this would become the new normal for them. It wasn't altogether unpleasant, but Anna would much prefer to have Kristoff back.

She loved him.

* * *

**So... at first I wanted to have a huge argument between Elsa and Anna, but I could get it to where I felt that they would have actually been as cruel as I wanted them to be. Oh well.**


	41. Andrew and Olaf and Sven

Andrew had been following Isabel for a long time. He didn't pay much mind to _where_ there were going. He just focused on her, so that he wouldn't lose her.

Oh, and he was skating.

He had formed ice skates on the bottom of his shoes and was summoning ice in front of him to skate upon.

He hated skating. Skating was decidedly his _least_ favorite way to travel. He made a mental list of the ways someone could get somewhere that he liked more than skating.

_'Walking, running, biking, horseback riding, swimming, carriages, jogging...'_

He couldn't really think of anything he hated more than skating, actually.

_'flying.'_ He added that to the list of ways he liked to travel.

His powers didn't led themselves to actual flight, but his travels had him stumble across someone who _was _able to fly.

_'Oh boy, was that fun!'_

He was slightly jealous of Kristoff and Isabel.

The reason Andrew was skating rather than taking any of the other option was partially because he needed to travel quickly to keep up with them, and partially because he wanted to stay hidden, so he couldn't just create an ice ramp above the trees or some such thing. He didn't want Isabel looking back and seeing that she was being followed; that probably wouldn't end well.

It wasn't very long until he heard some noises behind him. Looking back, he saw the strangest thing he'd probably ever seen. A snowman he recognized as Olaf was riding on Kristoff's reindeer, Sven, clutching his right arm in his left as though it was a sword.

"Faster Sven!" The snowman cried.

Andrew was forced to slow down by a tree. He wasn't looking at where he was going because of the strange sight behind him.

His body rebounded off of the tree and he landed hard on his back.

When the Sven and Olaf had reached him, he was groaning.

"Watch out for the tree." Olaf said.

"Thanks." Andrew moan out in pain and sarcasm.

"So, are you following the girl too?" Olaf asked.

* * *

_A while ago..._

Olaf opened his eyes and looked around him. He admittedly had closed his eyes the second Isabella had started to glow. He knew what was coming, and he could watch.

He had opened his eyes when he no longer felt intense heat and he knew he was still alive.

As he looked around, Elsa was lying on the ground next to him; Anna was lying on the ground next to Isabella; and Kristoff was lying on the ground a short distance away rocking back and forth while flames ate at his flesh and clothing.

If it weren't for Kristoff's cries of agony, Olaf would have thought everyone decided to take an afternoon nap. Well, that and the events that happened just prior.

Olaf noticed that the flames were gone from Kristoff's body, and he saw motion out of the corner of his eye. It was Isabel running to Kristoff.

Olaf saw her lips moving, but he could not read lips, nor could her hear what she was saying.

If Olaf had to guess, Isabel was saying something like, "Do you want to go out for some steak later?" or "I say we team up and kill the snowman, 'kay?"

None of those would have made any sense considering the situation, so he shoved those aside and made a mental note for himself to take up lip reading. That would come in really hand when Anna sent him on her super secret spy missions.

Suddenly, Olaf saw Isabel pick Kristoff up in her arms, and she began running toward the door.

Olaf was torn. Isabel could hurt Kristoff, but Anna and Elsa were _here_ and they probably weren't doing so well either.

Olaf's decision was made for him by Sven who, using his antlers, lifted Olaf onto his back and ran through the door after Isabel and Kristoff.

After Olaf had fully registered what was going on, he began riding Sven confidently. He grabbed his shorter arm in his longer one and shouted.

"Onward! Let's go get Kristoff!" He cried.

They were on their way, but Isabel was clearly gaining on them.

"Faster Sven!" Olaf said.

It was only then that Olaf noticed that there was a man a short distance in front of them. He recognized him as Andrew.

Olaf was confused by the fact that the man wasn't paying any attention to where he was going. Rather, he was looking back at the two of them.

Olaf saw too late that Andrew was headed straight toward a tree.

"Wa-" Crash.

Sven, with Olaf on his back, neared the dazed figure. There were sounds of pain emanating from his lips.

"Watch out for the tree." Olaf said.

"Thanks." Olaf could easily hear the pain in the man's voice, but sarcasm was always lost on him. Kristoff had said something to Olaf once, but when Olaf responded, Kristoff said it was, "sarcasm." Olaf had no idea what that tasted like, but he was eager to find out... eventually.

"So, are you following the girl too?" Asked Olaf innocently.

"Yeah." Andrew answered simply.

"Why?" Olaf asked another question.

"I want to make sure she and Kristoff are okay." Andrew responded.

"Why?"

"I've sworn to protect them." Andrew answered again.

"Why?"

"Well, Isabel is my sister, and I owe the royal so much." Andrew was starting to lose patience, and Isabel was gaining distance on them by the second.

"Why?"

"I... did something terrible. You know, we need to get after them or none of these answers will matter." Andrew nearly barked at the snowman.

Olaf knew better than to ask any more questions.

"Okay! Let's go!" Olaf said.

"Just me. You go back to Arendelle. I've got this by myself." Andrew told him.

"But... we can help." Olaf's voice sounded of defeat.

"Imagine what Anna and Elsa are going through. Return to them. They need you." Olaf nodded at Andrew's words.

Andrew turned to leave Olaf and continue his skating expedition. Isabel was almost completely out of sight, but she left a trail of smoke that Andrew could follow even if she did end up significant ground on him.

He skated on for what may have been hours or days. His eyes were focused on Isabella. He paid no mind to the sun passing overhead.

After who-knows-how-long, Isabel landed. Andrew could no longer follow her as the trees were quite thick, but he tried as best he could to travel in the direction she had been flying.

He happened upon a kingdom.

It was a small kingdom, bigger than Arendelle, but barely. Andrew later learned that the size of the kingdom was mostly in the land owned by the royal family, not the kingdom's settlements themselves. This had the effect of forming a decently sized city in close proximity to the castle, but also formed tiny settlements in the wilderness around it. Thugs were mostly the only types of people who did not live in the castle town.

The town square was surprisingly empty. The only person present was a portly mime making strange gestures in the middle of the square.

"Excuse me, sir." Andrew said to the mime.

Andrew wasn't expecting a verbal response, and he didn't get one.

The mime stood up straight and waved slowly at the man.

"You didn't happen to see a girl run past here, did you? She would likely have had a man with him." Andrew was talking to the mime almost as one might talk to a seven-year-old.

The mime brought his gloved forefinger and thumb up to his chin and looked thoughtful. After a moment he snapped his fingers, without making any noise and nodded his head quickly.

"Where did she go?" Andrew asked his final question.

The mime opened his mouth and raised both arms slowly. The mime wasn't making any noise, but Andrew knew what he was trying to do. He was, "singing" a fanfare.

The mime spun on his heel and point above and behind himself. Andrew followed his fingers and saw the castle the mime was pointing to.

_'Great.' _Andrew thought to himself. _'More royalty.'_

Andrew jogged past the mime and toward the castle. When he neared the gate, there were guards at the base of the steps up to the palace.

Andrew eyed them as he passed. He did a double-take as he saw what the guard had attached to her belt. If it weren't for the guards stern look, Andrew would have checked once more to be sure. Andrew thought he saw the guard wearing a frying pan on his belt.

He reached the castle gates and requested entry from one of the guards. It was denied to him.

"What business do you have with the royal family?" The guard asked; this one was clearly wearing a frying pan on his belt.

"My sister is in there, along with my friend." Andrew answered.

"You can wait for her to come out." The guard told him. This guard was surprisingly old. His body didn't show his age much, but his face betrayed him. This man had to be one of the oldest citizens of the kingdom.

"Please. I need to make sure she's okay." Andrew pleaded.

"Go away and wait for your friends to come out." The guard suggested he leave with all the kindness of the grumpy old man he seemed to be.

"I _need_ to get in there." Andrew said as he tried to push past the guard.

The guard shocked Andrew with his strength as he felt himself picked up by him. He felt himself fly through the air a short distance before hitting a stone step and falling down a few more. He groaned as he picked himself up off the stone step.

"You... are not a very nice old man." Andrew said. He was defeated and he had to admit it. He worked his way back to the town square.

Andrew may have fallen asleep. He didn't know for sure, but when next he notice, Isabel was exiting the castle gates, and she began to fly off again. She didn't have Kristoff.

Andrew was torn. He needed to go after Isabel, but he also needed to stay and make sure Kristoff was okay. Suddenly, a voice sounded to his left.

"What are you-"

"OH MY JESUS!" Andrew screamed, startled.

"What?"

"Scariest. moment. of. my life." Andrew punctuated for emphasis.

"Sorry." Olaf told him.

"What were you saying?" Andrew asked him.

"I was asking what you were waiting for. Go after her." Olaf answered.

"I have to make sure Kristoff is okay. No one else can-" Andrew's thought was interrupted as the realization of who was in front of him settled in.

"You and Sven will stay here and care for Kristoff?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I'm going after Isabel." Andrew answered simply. He got up from the bench he had been waiting on and began running off in the direction Isabel flew.

* * *

**So... Elsa in Once Upon a Time.**


End file.
